Showing posts with label Psalm 99. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 99. Show all posts
Monday, September 25, 2023
Psalm Meditation 1215
¶World Communion Sunday
¶October 1, 2023
¶Psalm 99
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+99&version=NRSVUE
(NRSV)
¶To have a nation run by a god, gods, or God is called a theocracy. The trouble with a theocracy is that it needs at least one person to be the intermediary between the divine on the one hand and humans on the other. It works best when the intermediary is a faithful interpreter of the divine will. And there’s the rub. We rarely relay information from source to recipient without throwing in our own point of view. When multiple people are asked to describe an event to which they were each witnesses, there will be as many versions of the event as there are witnesses.
¶When we do wish for a theocracy, we want the one that follows our own particular spin on the laws, by-laws, and rules. I want all the ‘others’ around me to pay a heftier price for their actions than I do, because, of course, I cling more closely to the divine rules as I have received them. If a dispute arises between your way and mine, my way is superior to yours; with the understanding that ‘my’ and ‘mine’ belong to the person currently reading. It is hard enough to follow God as an individual without having a whole nation follow God through one interpretation.
¶While a nation ruled by God is a laudable goal, it is not very practical. Even two people can find reason to argue over what it means to follow God as a faithful adherent to God’s word and will for us in the world. The best we can do is to follow God as closely as we can as individuals, while being open to teaching and correction from others. God loves justice, righteousness, and forgives us freely and wholeheartedly. Most important, God loves each one of us.
¶September 25, 2023
¶LCM
Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Psalm Meditation 1120
¶Second Sunday of Advent
¶December 5, 2021
¶Psalm 99
1 The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4 Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity;
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the Lord our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the Lord, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy.
(NRSV)
¶We like to think that people in previous generations were more faithful and pure than the current generation. We can certainly see that those young people, anyone younger than us, are not as faithful as we are. And our parents’ generation was, as a whole, more faithful than our generation ‘ever was or will be’, according to them. From the second generation on, the previous generation was more attuned to God than our generation. Some of the very early generations actually met God face to face without bursting into flames.
¶The psalmist reminds us that people have been walking away from God like toddlers wandering away from parents from the beginning. Yes, there have been some faithful folks in every generation, there had to be to call the rest of us back into the presence of God. Moses, Aaron, and Samuel led people in the way of God because none of us seem to be able to keep ourselves going in that direction on our own. Every generation needs a prophet to call us into the path and presence of God.
¶In all of this, the good thing is that God is way more forgiving than we are sinful. There may be consequences for our actions, however God is also deeply willing to forgive. God will even forgive, has even forgiven, that thing that you can’t let yourself let go of. Even though we can’t imagine that level of forgiveness, God forgives us anyway. The consequences play out without leaving a stain on our permanent record. “Extol the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy.”
¶December 1, 2021
¶LCM
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Psalm Meditation 835
Proper 7
June 19, 2016
Psalm 99
1 The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4 Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy.
(NRSV)
Years ago I heard, ‘we are not punished for our sin so much as we are punished by our sin.’ When it is about someone else I wish justice were more swift and decisive than it is. When it comes to me and the folks I love and care for I am grateful for God’s patience about sin and evil. It can take forever for the rest of the world to find out who did what when something happens, however the person or group responsible knows immediately. They may revel and celebrate in the moment but the gravity of sin weighs on them as it does on us no matter what.
The wonderful thing about free will is that God does not force decisions and choices on us. The bad thing is that when we have choices we can, and do, make some stupid, dangerous and evil choices. Sometimes the evil is intentional, when we do our best to make someone else miserable. Sometimes the evil is inadvertent, when we mean to do the right thing and it goes very wrong. Sometimes the evil is an unintended consequence of an otherwise good choice. And sometimes we simply get it wrong with the best of intentions by mistaking our selfishness for the mind and will of God.
God loves justice. At the same time, God loves us even when our actions, inactions and reactions lead to injustice for ourselves or someone else. It is a good idea to keep ears and minds open to the will of God even when it is at the expense of something precious to us. The love of God is perplexingly patient with us and with others. That patience with us, in hopes that we will find a way toward justice by our own choosing, is a part of the holiness of God.
June 14, 2016
LCM
Proper 7
June 19, 2016
Psalm 99
1 The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4 Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy.
(NRSV)
Years ago I heard, ‘we are not punished for our sin so much as we are punished by our sin.’ When it is about someone else I wish justice were more swift and decisive than it is. When it comes to me and the folks I love and care for I am grateful for God’s patience about sin and evil. It can take forever for the rest of the world to find out who did what when something happens, however the person or group responsible knows immediately. They may revel and celebrate in the moment but the gravity of sin weighs on them as it does on us no matter what.
The wonderful thing about free will is that God does not force decisions and choices on us. The bad thing is that when we have choices we can, and do, make some stupid, dangerous and evil choices. Sometimes the evil is intentional, when we do our best to make someone else miserable. Sometimes the evil is inadvertent, when we mean to do the right thing and it goes very wrong. Sometimes the evil is an unintended consequence of an otherwise good choice. And sometimes we simply get it wrong with the best of intentions by mistaking our selfishness for the mind and will of God.
God loves justice. At the same time, God loves us even when our actions, inactions and reactions lead to injustice for ourselves or someone else. It is a good idea to keep ears and minds open to the will of God even when it is at the expense of something precious to us. The love of God is perplexingly patient with us and with others. That patience with us, in hopes that we will find a way toward justice by our own choosing, is a part of the holiness of God.
June 14, 2016
LCM
Monday, August 26, 2013
Psalm Meditation 689
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 1, 2013
Psalm 99
1 The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4 Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy.
(NRSV)
At some point in our faith development it is important to ask questions about the beliefs with which we have been raised so that we can claim them as our own or modify them to fit our own way of perceiving who God is in our lives. In this psalm it seems that the psalmist is answering some of the questions about why we worship God.
We worship a God who loves justice, equity and righteousness. This is not a God who decides how to act as a situation arises, this is a God who acts out of a sense of what is just, what is right and what gives folks a sense of equality in their lives. We worship because God has been around a long time and has a long and rich history with us. From Moses and Aaron to Samuel to the present we have seen God in action. We worship a God who is quick to forgive without being a push over, who demands consequences in the midst of being forgiving. We worship a God who is dependable in any given situation and in long term faithfulness.
Go ahead and ask the questions about why we as a body choose to worship the God who has chosen us and calls us to live out the same sense of justice, history and forgiveness we have received. Our God is big enough to be comfortable with the questions, confident enough to be with us no matter what answers we may find, patient enough to continually invite us into an ever deepening relationship whether we accept the invitation or not. God is not troubled by our questions or our answers, in part because our God is holy.
August 26, 2013
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 1, 2013
Psalm 99
1 The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4 Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy.
(NRSV)
At some point in our faith development it is important to ask questions about the beliefs with which we have been raised so that we can claim them as our own or modify them to fit our own way of perceiving who God is in our lives. In this psalm it seems that the psalmist is answering some of the questions about why we worship God.
We worship a God who loves justice, equity and righteousness. This is not a God who decides how to act as a situation arises, this is a God who acts out of a sense of what is just, what is right and what gives folks a sense of equality in their lives. We worship because God has been around a long time and has a long and rich history with us. From Moses and Aaron to Samuel to the present we have seen God in action. We worship a God who is quick to forgive without being a push over, who demands consequences in the midst of being forgiving. We worship a God who is dependable in any given situation and in long term faithfulness.
Go ahead and ask the questions about why we as a body choose to worship the God who has chosen us and calls us to live out the same sense of justice, history and forgiveness we have received. Our God is big enough to be comfortable with the questions, confident enough to be with us no matter what answers we may find, patient enough to continually invite us into an ever deepening relationship whether we accept the invitation or not. God is not troubled by our questions or our answers, in part because our God is holy.
August 26, 2013
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