Psalm Meditation 1236 ¶Second Sunday in Lent ¶February 25, 2024 ¶Psalm 102 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+102&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶When we are beaten down by internal or external forces, time slows to a crawl and everything negative gets amplified and drawn out. The forces pressing on us have been present forever, it seems, and the pain it causes is deeper, duller, and more long lasting than anything we have ever experienced. No one can possibly know the depths of pain that will neither kill us nor make us stronger. We are left to experience this in a lonely cycle of intense pain followed by dull, throbbing nothingness. ¶This is what the psalmist is experiencing. The pain is endless, without being intense. The psalmist is drained of energy to the point that even eating is to much of a trial. Not being able to invest enough energy to eat drains off more the physical resources that might lead to a way up and out. The psalmist feels the physical aches along with the soul ache of loneliness and abandonment. At the lowest point, it seems that even God has turned away and left the psalmist to suffer alone. Even from the depths of despair, the psalmist refuses to abandon hope in God. ¶That is a good place to be. It may begin with speaking a word of hope without believing it. What we hear often enough begins to be believable, and so we are able to have a glimmer of hope. For some, words of hope are enough to lift the lid on the despair they feel, others will need a little more and some will need a lot more. The psalmist goes back and forth between personal despair and the hope that God cares for and will rescue and redeem people for generations to come. ¶February 19, 2024 ¶LCM