Psalm Meditation 1198 ¶Trinity Sunday ¶June 4, 2023 ¶Psalm 52 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+52&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶The chances are good that this psalm is addressed to people in positions of power. There may be a person like this in our circle of friends and acquaintances, however in the whole scope of human history their influence is extremely small. People in power who lie, cheat, and act treacherously can change the course of history with a well chosen word in the ear of one already primed to listen and believe. These are the people to whom this psalm issues a warning. ¶This psalm does not excuse this kind of behavior on the smaller scale of a friend group, it simply does not deal with dishonesty and treachery at that level. The warning stands for any who get giddy tearing people apart through lies, innuendo, and treachery. The psalmist warns that these folks will be found out, and the personal damage will be catastrophic. While it may give one a feeling of power to destroy a person or group from the inside, the price that is paid will hardly be worth the effort. ¶While a psalm may not address us or a situation in which we find ourselves directly, we can take a lesson from it. This psalm addresses lying etc. on a national political scale. While we may never have that kind of influence on a national leader, we can be aware that no good comes from treachery. We are much better off trusting in the steadfast love of God for joy and meaning in our lives. By trusting in steadfast love we can be resilient in the face of all the challenges that will come to us from within and without. ¶May 29, 2023 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1197 ¶Pentecost ¶May 28, 2023 ¶Psalm 81 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+81&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶Though most of us hate to be punished for anything, we are okay with God punishing us as long as it also means that our enemies suffer humiliations galore at some point in the future, and we are back to being God’s favorites once again. We like to know that God is really on our side. Anything bad that may happen to us is punishment for some sin we may have committed inadvertently, or even purposefully. We want to know that we are special, and that all the people we don’t like are on God’s naughty list. ¶We conveniently forget that God is not our special property. If we are set apart, it is not something we have earned it is something that God has chosen to do for us. My guess is that every faith and religion is of the opinion that God has a special claim on them/us, and has a special mission for them/us. We each want our relationship with God to be exclusive, that we are the only ones to have God’s attention and affection. What if, God loves each and all of us as if we were unique and specially set apart for some task and purpose? Like spokes in a bicycle wheel, we come from and go to separate places in order to fulfill the special function we have. ¶It would be good if we could see each other as companions on the journey with wide variations in our relationship with God and with each other. God does want to subdue our enemies, however not in the way we are used to having that happen. God wants us to submit to the power of relationship that allows us to get along even as we disagree in all manner of things. Rather than vying to destroy each other, I believe God would like to gather us at the table of companionship where, “I would feed you[d] with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” ¶May 23, 2023 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1196 ¶Seventh Sunday of Easter ¶May 21, 2023 ¶Psalm 74 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+74&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶We like to believe that we want what God wants, or more accurately, that God wants what we want. When we feel oppressed, or even slightly put upon by others, we want to know that God is there to deliver us from that pressure. God has to be on our side, because that is how this is supposed to work. If we do all the right things God does what we want. If we mess up sometimes, God forgives us and still does what we want. Maybe sometimes we deserve to be punished for crossing the line too far, but after a suitable time of punishment God forgives us and goes back to doing what we want. ¶So what if, instead of God doing what we want, we discover that God wants us to be more like God? What if God wants us to love even the people who hate us, or worse, are totally indifferent to us? Our resistance to violence becomes non-violence, our desire for justice goes beyond a concern for ourselves and those like us, our wants and desires take the wants and desires of others into consideration. If we were to strive to be in the constant process of making and remaking ourselves in the image of God, we could and would change the world. ¶It is tempting to see these psalms as permission to expect God to meet human violence with even greater and far more destructive violence. We relish the idea of those who have hurt us being more deeply and permanently scarred by God in retaliation for our injuries. It may be that the people we call our enemies also await the punishment that God will inflict on us for our years of hatred or indifference toward them. Sometimes psalms and other Scriptures can teach how not to behave. We can use these psalms to gauge how far we have come and how much farther we need to go to be the people God calls us to be. ¶May 15, 2023 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1195 ¶Sixth Sunday of Easter/Mothers Day ¶May 14, 2023 ¶Psalm 67 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+67&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶While it seems like a good idea to have all the peoples of the earth praise God, I wonder if it is. There have been a number of people who have had great ideas which most people have rejected as stupid because those ideas did not allow folks to stay in their comfort zone. A lot of those ideas have gone on to be generally accepted as great ideas and innovations, once given a chance to come to full bloom. For all the peoples of the earth to praise God may mean that no one is threatened by the newness and novelty of the things that God encourages us to do, to say, to think, and be. ¶Perhaps what the psalmist wants if for everyone to believe the same things, that is the things with which the psalmist is already comfortable. We like that God judges people with equity until that equity gets in the way of the punishment we believe should be showered onto the people we don’t like and with whom we seriously disagree. It would be fine if God were to punish those we believe need to be punished, and let us off with a warning, because we really are good people. ¶The adage, ‘Be careful what you wish/pray for, you just might get it.’ certainly applies here. When we discover that God is as just and forgiving with other groups as with us, we may get our feelings hurt. We would like to know that we are called and set apart as a special case, given plenty of slack in matters of morals and behavior, rather than called to be the example of the kind of behavior God wants and expects from each person. If we lived as if God is a God of equity rather than of punishment, perhaps more people would want to follow that God, with singing and joy. ¶May 11, 2023 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1194 ¶Fifth Sunday of Easter ¶May 7, 2023 ¶Psalm 60 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+60&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶It will be a good day when we realize that God has a different agenda than many of us have. We want God to do our bidding, to get rid of our enemies, to punish the folks with whom we disagree, and to make us victorious over the whole world. One of the difficulties is that there are multiple countries and cultures who are praying that God will put them in first place among the peoples of the earth. As long as we expect to be in first place because we are people of God, we can’t appreciate what God is actually calling us to do and be. ¶God calls us to be servants of those around us. This does not mean we let folks walk over us, it means we serve willingly, humbly, and wholeheartedly. God loves us because that is the nature of God. As with anyone, God’s love is not something we can earn. God loves us by choice, rather than because we have completed the proper number of good deeds in the allotted amount of time. A person can, perhaps, drive people away by their actions, however, no one can make anyone stop loving them. ¶When we read a psalm such as this one, let it serve as a reminder that what we want is not the same as what God wants for us. We can ask God to ride ahead and kill all the folks who annoy us and stand against us, but that does not mean that God will cater to our whims, especially when those whims involve the defeat and destruction of another person or group of those loved by God. God would much rather we learn to live together, with our differences intact, than that we destroy each other for the sake of ‘winning.’ ¶May 1, 2023 ¶LCM