Psalm Meditation 1328 ¶First Sunday of Advent ¶November 30, 2025 ¶Psalm 56 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2056&version=NRSVUE ¶When a teenager is going through the drama of being that age, we have a tendency to laugh or smile at the depths of their feelings. ‘If they only knew what was coming in adulthood, they would not be so broken up about this.’ What we forget is that they don’t know what is coming, just like we didn’t know in our teen lives. They take it hard because it is the worst thing, or series of things that has ever happened to them. We, as adults, would brush this kind of pain off as nearly inconsequential, instead of remembering back to our own days of teen drama. ¶When we go through our own drama, there will likely be someone who has been through worse. Some will tell us about it, some will empathize with us, even though their own drama would break us. When the psalmist is being oppressed by foes on every side, and in every moment, his suffering would put ours to shame. At the same time, this psalm is shared with us to remind us that no matter the depth of our pain and suffering God is present with us. God is with us whenever we feel oppressed and distressed by anything going on in our lives whether it be teenage angst or the horrors of battle. ¶It is easy to take the suffering of others lightly, especially when it is something we have endured, gotten through, and moved on from in our own lives. It is easy, however it is not faithful. People of faith are encouraged to lift up the downtrodden whether they are suffering a first or a final clash with foes from the outside or the inside. The psalmist reminds us to be grateful for the deliverance we have received and to help others endure their trials. ¶November 25, 2025 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1327 ¶Reign of Christ ¶November 23, 2025 ¶Psalm 50 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2050&version=NRSVUE ¶How many of us find ourselves doing things to impress God with our worthiness in regards to our salvation. We are part of the right congregation, we go to all the right meetings, sit in the proper seat with a good view of all the people we know to be sinners so that we can better judge them for their hypocrisy, coming to worship as if they deserve to be there. Aaand, we participate in all the fund raisers, and many of the mission projects; we even go on the field trips to build a sense of community in the congregation. ¶We spend so much time in our attempts to impress God with our sacrifices of time, talent, and energy that we forget what God really wants from us. It isn’t about great deeds of derring-do, saving the world from other people’s sins, or going to all the meetings we would rather not attend, it is about being thankful. God has all the ‘stuff’ that we offer to help ourselves be noticed by God as well as others. God wants us to thankful in a way that touches others with a sense of thankfulness as well. When we are willingly and openly thankful, we keep finding more and more things to be thankful for and thankful about. And thankfulness rubs off on others and feeds on itself. ¶When we live thankfully we touch people in the same way God touches us, with a leaning toward thanks, grace, and mercy. As we touch people with thanks rather than judgement, we each take a step closer to the life that leads to a growing awareness that we are already in the realm of God. “Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way, I will show the salvation of God.” ¶November 17, 2025 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1326 ¶Proper 28 ¶November 16, 2025 ¶Psalm 44 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2044&version=NRSVUE ¶We can get so sure that God is with us, to help us in every time and place that we forget that God is not at our beck and call. God is with us in every time and place, however that does not mean that God will participate in every foolish side quest on which we embark. God will still be there to be present with us without helping us do whatever we thing needs to be done in a given situation. God can be depended on to be God. That means that God will neither lead us nor follow us into a situation that compromises the will of God. ¶We can be so sure that we don’t need God’s help or presence with something that we rush in and muck it up in a way that does damage to all involved. We decide without listening what it is that God wants done and we rush in, put all of our energy into whatever it is only to fail miserably in an otherwise noble cause. And yes, these are two perspectives on what can happen when we fail to discern what is the will of God for us in a given situation. It may be a good project, just not one that we need to be involved in. ¶The psalmist has rushed in to a noble project without any discernment as to the will of God. God stands back and lets it happen, since that is the nature of free will, and the army rushes in and suffers great losses because that can be a consequence of free will. We do well to listen for the word and will of God before we venture into a project, a mission/ministry, or a battle. A group of which I was a part was often approached to help in a worthwhile project, and sometimes the answer was, ‘that is a great project and we wish you godspeed, however that is outside of our mission statement so we must decline.’ ¶November 10, 2025 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1325 ¶Proper 27 ¶October 9, 2025 ¶Psalm 39 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2039&version=NRSVUE ¶When we are feeling particularly down, as one of my mentors would say, feeling, helpless, hopeless, worthless we will see our lives as amazingly brief and inconsequential. We are but a breath, a featherweight’s worth of consequence in the world and the whole scope of human history. We know that if we were to disappear we would not be missed and our absence not noticed. Yet, as we wallow in our smallness, we also turn to God for comfort, meaning, and reassurance. ¶The psalmist turns to God even though it feels as if God is the one responsible for the misery being experienced. The reason we turn to God is that God finds it important to discipline us despite our seeming insignificance in the world. God’s attention to our lives is a reminder that though our lives seem insignificant, God sees us. If we are important enough for God to notice and be concerned about us, we do have worth in the world even as we feel insignificant. ¶While I was a seminary student, I got called in to the bishop’s office, While I fretted over the probable negative outcome of that visit, one of my classmates told me that I could see this visit in a much more positive light by recognizing that the bishop cared enough about me to have a conversation with me. Recognizing that the bishop is not God, the concern for one seemingly lowly seminary student is an apt illustration of the concern that God has for each of us, no matter how we see ourselves in the scope of salvation history. ¶November 3, 2025 ¶LCM