Psalm Meditation 567
Second Sunday of Easter
May 1, 2011
Psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
(NRSV)
There are religious folks who believe we have no need to take care of the earth because the world will end before we have time to find and use all the resources the earth holds. That does not seem to change the commands and exhortations to care for the earth around us that run as a theme through Scripture. There are secular folks who believe we need to get all we can from the earth because if we don’t someone else will do it and get all the benefit from those resources. Both sides appear to be more concerned with domination of the earth rather than dominion over the earth.
The good thing is, there are both religious and secular folks who have made a commitment to care for the earth. The religious folks see themselves as partners with the God of creation who desire to exercise dominion in a way that cooperates with the creative processes set in place from the beginning. The secular folks see themselves as caring for the only planet/place we currently have in a way that honors the resources of the earth as well as our own survival needs.
Through it all God cares for us and for the place where we live and the other parts of creation which with we share our life together. God cares for us and about us and asks us to care for and about the place in which we live as co creators with God. It is about the relationship with God, the people around us as well as the living creatures and the resources that make up the world in which God has placed us. “O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! “
April 25, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Psalm Meditation 566
Easter
April 24, 2011
Psalm 127
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.
3 Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one's youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
(NRSV)
There seems to be no connection between the first two verses and the other three. As one who can make great leaps in a single sentence I am pretty sure that the psalmist knows how these verses go together. It may have made more sense to the original audience for whom or about whom this psalm was written. Since we don’t have the original audience and context we can make our own sense of the psalm.
The connection I see this time is the presence of God in each of these. God builds the house, God guards the city, God gives us work and rest and God gives us family. If God is not present in the family, it makes no difference how many offspring there are of any gender. When God is present, when we pay attention to the presence of God in our families, sons are a source of great joy and pride. While sons were and are the way we continue a family name, daughters are a blessing all their own.
The presence of God in our lives does make a difference. Families who do not acknowledge the presence of God may have more money and material goods than a family of faith. I would rather have a family based on loving relationships without a lot of the trappings of materialism than one based on having and getting stuff without a lot of loving concern for one another. I do appreciate a mixture of stuff and family love. Given the choice between the two I would choose the family.
April 18, 2011
Easter
April 24, 2011
Psalm 127
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.
3 Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one's youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
(NRSV)
There seems to be no connection between the first two verses and the other three. As one who can make great leaps in a single sentence I am pretty sure that the psalmist knows how these verses go together. It may have made more sense to the original audience for whom or about whom this psalm was written. Since we don’t have the original audience and context we can make our own sense of the psalm.
The connection I see this time is the presence of God in each of these. God builds the house, God guards the city, God gives us work and rest and God gives us family. If God is not present in the family, it makes no difference how many offspring there are of any gender. When God is present, when we pay attention to the presence of God in our families, sons are a source of great joy and pride. While sons were and are the way we continue a family name, daughters are a blessing all their own.
The presence of God in our lives does make a difference. Families who do not acknowledge the presence of God may have more money and material goods than a family of faith. I would rather have a family based on loving relationships without a lot of the trappings of materialism than one based on having and getting stuff without a lot of loving concern for one another. I do appreciate a mixture of stuff and family love. Given the choice between the two I would choose the family.
April 18, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Psalm Meditation 565
Palm Sunday
April 17, 2010
Psalm 97
1 The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him, and consumes his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame, those who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him.
8 Zion hears and is glad, and the towns of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O God.
9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
10 The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! (NRSV)
I had the privilege of listening to a death row defense attorney yesterday. One of her points was that folks who have a supportive community outside of prison are the ones least likely to return to prison, if they are incarcerated in the first place. Verse 10 takes on a new and deeper meaning as a result. That God guards the lives of the faithful and rescues them from the wicked does not mean that God will pluck us out of the clutches of evil, wicked people so much as it means that God, through the community of faith, will keep us from getting sucked into the downward spiral of returning evil for evil.
In 30 plus years of ministry I have come to answer the question of who did some kind of minor, easily reparable damage with the one word phrase, thosedamnkids. It seems that we have a tendency to blame the youth and children pretty quickly for any damage in and around church buildings in particular and public spaces like shops and malls in general. We have to lump the whole group into the category of thosedamnkids because we do not know their names and maybe not even their faces. We might do much better by ourselves to get to know these folks as individuals with names, faces and histories so that we are a part of a supportive community together.
The psalmist tells us that we are a particularly protected set of people because of our relationship with God and the people of God. The defense attorney tells us that as we include youth and children in the set of God’s people we benefit the youth and children, ourselves and society at large. To include them means more than simply encouraging them to become members of the church, it means getting to know them as individuals, being there with them and for them as they go through the various trials adolescence, letting them get to know us as people, peers and companions on the journey, praying with them and for them.
April 11, 2011
Palm Sunday
April 17, 2010
Psalm 97
1 The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him, and consumes his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame, those who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him.
8 Zion hears and is glad, and the towns of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O God.
9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
10 The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! (NRSV)
I had the privilege of listening to a death row defense attorney yesterday. One of her points was that folks who have a supportive community outside of prison are the ones least likely to return to prison, if they are incarcerated in the first place. Verse 10 takes on a new and deeper meaning as a result. That God guards the lives of the faithful and rescues them from the wicked does not mean that God will pluck us out of the clutches of evil, wicked people so much as it means that God, through the community of faith, will keep us from getting sucked into the downward spiral of returning evil for evil.
In 30 plus years of ministry I have come to answer the question of who did some kind of minor, easily reparable damage with the one word phrase, thosedamnkids. It seems that we have a tendency to blame the youth and children pretty quickly for any damage in and around church buildings in particular and public spaces like shops and malls in general. We have to lump the whole group into the category of thosedamnkids because we do not know their names and maybe not even their faces. We might do much better by ourselves to get to know these folks as individuals with names, faces and histories so that we are a part of a supportive community together.
The psalmist tells us that we are a particularly protected set of people because of our relationship with God and the people of God. The defense attorney tells us that as we include youth and children in the set of God’s people we benefit the youth and children, ourselves and society at large. To include them means more than simply encouraging them to become members of the church, it means getting to know them as individuals, being there with them and for them as they go through the various trials adolescence, letting them get to know us as people, peers and companions on the journey, praying with them and for them.
April 11, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Psalm Meditation 564
Fifth Sunday in Lent
April 10, 2011
Psalm 67
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.
7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.
(NRSV)
It is interesting to note that what one generation sees as a luxury, succeeding generations see as a necessity. Running water is a given for many of us reading this. It has not been that long ago that carting water and then digging your own well were the expectation. Some of you reading this are very aware that safe, clean drinking water is a hope rather than an expectation in parts of the world with which you are familiar. All that to point to the first verse of this psalm; that the blessing and presence of God has not always been a given. Even though we invoke God’s presence at the beginning of our worship services we are aware that we entered the sanctuary in the presence of God and that we meet God in each of the folks with whom we join in worship. It is amazing to us to consider that the presence and blessing of God has not always been a given.
Because of our awareness of the constant presence of God we may treat God with the same nonchalance with which we treat running water. We bemoan God’s absence rather than praise God’s presence in those moments in which God seems to be absent in our lives. Even as there are moments in which God pulls back so that we can find the wherewithal to move forward to discover a new set of skills and strengths within ourselves, our expectation is that God is with us in all times and places. It is because of God’s constant presence in our lives that we do well to praise God in every aspect. It is that constant presence that leads us to take God for granted as we forget to praise and sing as the people of God.
Every now and then something that seems so ordinary will strike us with how wondrous it really is. After a power failure we can find ourselves amazed at what an amazing gift electricity is. When a computer doesn’t run as quickly as the one we use elsewhere we may pause to marvel at how quick even the slowest computer is compared to other forms of written communication. When anything we see as a necessity doesn’t work the way we have come to expect perhaps we can pause to thank God for the gift of that luxury turned necessity as well as taking a moment to praise God for being with us in all times and places and for wanting to be in relationship with us and those around us.
April 4, 2011
Fifth Sunday in Lent
April 10, 2011
Psalm 67
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.
7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.
(NRSV)
It is interesting to note that what one generation sees as a luxury, succeeding generations see as a necessity. Running water is a given for many of us reading this. It has not been that long ago that carting water and then digging your own well were the expectation. Some of you reading this are very aware that safe, clean drinking water is a hope rather than an expectation in parts of the world with which you are familiar. All that to point to the first verse of this psalm; that the blessing and presence of God has not always been a given. Even though we invoke God’s presence at the beginning of our worship services we are aware that we entered the sanctuary in the presence of God and that we meet God in each of the folks with whom we join in worship. It is amazing to us to consider that the presence and blessing of God has not always been a given.
Because of our awareness of the constant presence of God we may treat God with the same nonchalance with which we treat running water. We bemoan God’s absence rather than praise God’s presence in those moments in which God seems to be absent in our lives. Even as there are moments in which God pulls back so that we can find the wherewithal to move forward to discover a new set of skills and strengths within ourselves, our expectation is that God is with us in all times and places. It is because of God’s constant presence in our lives that we do well to praise God in every aspect. It is that constant presence that leads us to take God for granted as we forget to praise and sing as the people of God.
Every now and then something that seems so ordinary will strike us with how wondrous it really is. After a power failure we can find ourselves amazed at what an amazing gift electricity is. When a computer doesn’t run as quickly as the one we use elsewhere we may pause to marvel at how quick even the slowest computer is compared to other forms of written communication. When anything we see as a necessity doesn’t work the way we have come to expect perhaps we can pause to thank God for the gift of that luxury turned necessity as well as taking a moment to praise God for being with us in all times and places and for wanting to be in relationship with us and those around us.
April 4, 2011
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