Psalm Meditation 680
Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 30, 2013

Psalm 120
1 In my distress I cry to the LORD, that he may answer me:
2 “Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.”
3 What shall be given to you? And what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?
4 A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!
5 Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar.
6 Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.
(NRSV)

Many of us have moments in which we feel we do not belong among the people who make up our lives, including our own families. We begin to feel alienated from all we have previously known and held dear. What we want appears to be the opposite of what all the folks around us desire. At the very least, the psalmist lets us know that we are neither the first nor the only to ever feel set apart by conflicting belief systems with those around us.

The psalmist also reminds us that there is a place for us among the people of God. Certainly not that we will always agree with those around us, however we do have an assurance that we are in a place in which honesty is more highly prized than conformity. At the same time, because we are in a relationship with God and the people of God, we do well to prize loving honesty over brutal honesty; to temper our honesty with a concern for the well-being of others.

At times, each of us will feel alone in a particular thought, belief or desired course of action, even among those we love. Some of us will find ourselves in situations in which we are resident aliens, to use the biblical phrase, among people with whom we do not agree on any number of questions. Being in the minority does not make us wrong any more than it makes us right. Know that God is with us and that we are not as alone as it may seem.

June 24, 2013