Psalm Meditation 733
Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 6, 2014

Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O LORD my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)

The best way to level charges against someone as the psalmist claims has been done in this case is to convince ourselves that this other is nothing like us. Whether it is former friends who have decided that this person is no longer one of ‘us’ or a group of strangers who have determined that the psalmist is not a person, the effect is the same. Once we demonize and dehumanize a person or group we can make all sorts of assumptions about how they behave and why they do the things they do. And it is usually for the worst of reasons. When folks take drastic and violent steps to be noticed, our assumptions are that there is something wrong with them and it is a shame they turned out that way. We do not pause to wonder what we may have done or left undone that would give them reason to snap.

Of course, our motives are always pure and motivated by the best of intentions. Our goal is to provide the best possible environment for ourselves and those we love, and we do that by putting up shields and barriers against all of ‘those people.’ Their task, as we see it, is to destroy all the wonderful things we have worked so hard to provide for ourselves and our loved ones. It couldn’t possibly be that we have shut them out of the very things they also want for themselves and their loved ones and any move toward achieving those things is seen as a threat.

It is easy to demonize and dehumanize, even folks in our own circle who no longer fit our mold. The difficult choice is to see those others as humans beings with their own set of wants and needs that may either mesh or conflict with ours. With a scarcity mindset, we believe that we can’t all have what we want and need so we have to protect ourselves from ‘them.’ God has given us a world of abundance and asks us to live as if all those others are our brothers and sisters who have wants and needs similar to our own. The hard task before us is to find a way together that meets all of our needs and provides a lot of the wants of this human family of which we are a part.

June 30, 2014