Psalm Meditation 677
Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 9, 2013

Psalm 30
1 I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.
3 O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain;
you hid your face; I was dismayed.
8 To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication:
9 “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!”
11 You have turned my mourning into dancing;
    you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
(NRSV)

There are life events, good and bad, that define who we are in a lot of ways. According to the psalmist, one of the ways those events define us is through the relationships that see us through those life events. The psalmist discovered that it is not health or prosperity that get us through the day. Health and prosperity come and go without much warning. What gets the psalmist through the trials of life is a relationship with God.

For folks in the psalmist’s day, good things happened because of God’s favor and bad things happened because of God’s anger with them. It is still tempting to allow the passing thought that good things are a reward for faithful action and bad things are punishment for some lapse of faithfulness on our part. I find much more comfort in believing that God is with us in all these events, good and bad. As people of free will we make choices that have consequences. Some of those are good and some are bad; both the choice and consequence. There are times in which we also receive the consequences of the actions of others through no responsibility of our own. One of the best ways to weather the good, bad and in-between of life is through strong relationships.

Even for the psalmist, who believes that God causes good and bad things, a relationship with God is an important part of life. Believing that God is with us through thick and thin, good and bad is important for us as well. We will suffer and celebrate, grieve and rejoice, so a set of strong relationships makes those times more bearable. The psalmist went through adversity, prosperity, loss and illness with an assurance of the presence of God in each one of those times. The psalmist invites us to join in praise and thanks forever.

June 3, 2013