Psalm Meditation 562
Third Sunday in Lent
March 27, 2011

Psalm 7
1 O LORD my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
(NRSV)

When someone attacks us, one of the questions that may come to mind is, ‘did I do anything to bring this on; am as a guilty as this person believes me to be?’ It is important to, at least, entertain the possibility that we have done something to put us on the receiving end of this kind of violent or passionate reaction from another person or group. We may discover that we are guilty and need to confess and repent as we accept the punishment/discipline being meted out. We may discover that there is guilt on both sides. We need to confess and repent our guilt and accept confession and repentance that may come from the others involved. We may discover that we are the target of an attack simply by being in the way at the time of the attack.

Once we decide where the fault lies we are ready to call down God’s judgment, on ourselves, others, and the systems who perpetuate sin, violence and evil in the world. Like so many others before us, we recognize that God is the one who is best suited to judge and to discipline those who live under the hand of God. We place ourselves in God’s hands for shelter, protection, and at times, a bit of each.

At our best we discover that God can and does find and root out the evil present on both sides or all sides of a conflict. God brings us to salvation, to judgment, and sometimes God brings us together as we discover our common ground. It would be wonderful if every conflict ended in the parties falling into each other’s arms in a declaration of peace and harmony. Evil continues in intentional and unintentional forms so the end of conflict as the beginning of harmony does not happen every time. There will continue to be arrogance, possessiveness and entitlement (just to name three) on one or all sides of a conflict. The best we can do is to yield ourselves to God to the best of our ability and as often as possible as we give thanks and sing praise to the God of righteousness.

March 21, 2011