Psalm Meditation 689
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 1, 2013

Psalm 99
1 The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4 Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy.
(NRSV)

At some point in our faith development it is important to ask questions about the beliefs with which we have been raised so that we can claim them as our own or modify them to fit our own way of perceiving who God is in our lives. In this psalm it seems that the psalmist is answering some of the questions about why we worship God.

We worship a God who loves justice, equity and righteousness. This is not a God who decides how to act as a situation arises, this is a God who acts out of a sense of what is just, what is right and what gives folks a sense of equality in their lives. We worship because God has been around a long time and has a long and rich history with us. From Moses and Aaron to Samuel to the present we have seen God in action. We worship a God who is quick to forgive without being a push over, who demands consequences in the midst of being forgiving. We worship a God who is dependable in any given situation and in long term faithfulness.

Go ahead and ask the questions about why we as a body choose to worship the God who has chosen us and calls us to live out the same sense of justice, history and forgiveness we have received. Our God is big enough to be comfortable with the questions, confident enough to be with us no matter what answers we may find, patient enough to continually invite us into an ever deepening relationship whether we accept the invitation or not. God is not troubled by our questions or our answers, in part because our God is holy.

August 26, 2013