Psalm Meditation 1378 ¶Proper 28 ¶November 15, 2026 ¶Psalm 94 ¶https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2094&version=NRSVUE ¶Isn’t it interesting that it is almost always ‘those’ people who deserve to be punished for their wickedness. We want those who bully us and lord it over us somehow to be forced to stop picking on us, and to bear no ill feelings toward us for contributing to their fall from grace. We want the bullies, who seem to feel so good about themselves, to get taken down a notch by someone who has more power over the bullies than we do. ¶While we might not actually stand over folks to intimidate them into our way of thinking and acting, we can participate in holding others down by being content to take advantage of them and their lower station in the same way any bully would. We may not boast about our higher prestige, and yet, we look down on ‘those’ people as insignificant on the one hand, and scary, violent, and vindictive on the other. As we feel crushed and afflicted by those who bully us, we are equally willing to pass that treatment on to those we brand beneath us. ¶Eventually, all the mistreatment that we suffer and perpetrate comes back around to us. We cry for release from oppression, and at our best, we repent of any and all the ways we have demeaned others to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. Behind all the movement toward justice, God is at work, bringing us to forgiveness and repentance; forgiveness for those who have hurt us, and repentance for all those to whom we have caused harm, intentionally or unknowingly. God is a refuge for us when we are caught in the confusing, conflicting roles of forgiving those who have wronged us and accepting the forgiveness of those we have wronged. ¶November 9, 2026 ¶LCM lcmanifold@gmail.com http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/