Psalm Meditation 550
Second Sunday After Christmas
January 2, 2011

Psalm 94
1 O LORD, you God of vengeance, you God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; give to the proud what they deserve!
3 O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the stranger, they murder the orphan,
7 and they say, "The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive."
8 Understand, O dullest of the people; fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who disciplines the nations, he who teaches knowledge to humankind, does he not chastise?
11 The LORD knows our thoughts, that they are but an empty breath.
12 Happy are those whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law,
13 giving them respite from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, "My foot is slipping," your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who contrive mischief by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous, and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will repay them for their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out.
(NRSV)

In a recent Sunday School class one of the participants asked how many of us picture God being a part of our day. It reminded me of a story one of my seminary professors told from the 1960s when the book God is Dead came out. A member of the congregation asked what it all meant and he asked her how often she talked about God to her friends or thought about God other than on Sunday morning during worship. All that to say that we are not as far from those the psalmist is scolding as we would like to be. That is, the folks who act as if God were inattentive to our daily actions.

The psalmist reminds us that God is watching and listening. What we do during the week makes as much difference to God as what we do on Sunday morning. There is the companion reminder that God knows what we are thinking as we worship and at all other times of our lives. In the context of this psalm it is a scary thought that God knows so much about us. God knows all the terrible things we say and hear about other people and God knows the thoughts that go through our heads as we hear and say these things. If God is only a harsh judge we are in some pretty serious trouble, even as people of God.

The good thing is that God is more than judge. God also loves us more deeply than we can possibly know. So, yes we will be judged harshly and we will be loved, taught and disciplined (yes, I know they mean the same thing) by a God who loves us and wants what is best for us and for those around us. God even loves those who make us crazy as well as those who hate us.

December 27, 2010