Psalm Meditation 722
Easter
April 20, 2014

Psalm 57
1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by.
2 I cry to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me, he will put to shame those who trample on me. Selah God will send forth his steadfast love and his faithfulness.
4 I lie down among lions that greedily devour human prey; their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues sharp swords.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.
6 They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my path, but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody.
8 Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn.
9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the clouds.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.
(NRSV)

Every now and then things go from bad to wonderful. Sometimes that change is sudden and one is excited to be the first one up on a given morning and to greet the day with the loudest music one is able to produce. For some of us that is music of our own making, with instruments and voices, for others it involves cranking recorded music as high as possible. In some cases we can actually have the volume as loud as available, in other cases, only as loud as feasible without waking folks who are suddenly not as excited to be awake and celebrating as we ourselves are.

In these cases it may be a turn of events, something has happened in our external circumstances that changes our lives for the better. Something that has troubled us suddenly ends and leaves us with a feeling, not just of relief, a feeling of release. A weight lifts from our shoulders and is gone. It may be a sudden change of heart. A burden weighing on heart or soul disappears and our hearts beat freely, our souls once again take flight. Either way, we are able to join the psalmist in recognizing the hand of God at work in our lives in some way.

Whether God reaches in and stirs the pot of our lives, changing the way things are, or we become aware of God’s presence in our lives, giving us a new perspective, we know that God is with us. In a musical setting of the psalm’s refrain, verses 5 and 11, the verse is rendered, ‘Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory over all the earth be found.’ It is an appropriate phrasing of the last sentence. The glory of God is over all the earth, all the time. It is in our moments of heightened awareness due to joy that we are able to find the glory of the God in all the earth.

April 14, 2014
LCM