Psalm Meditation 739
Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 17, 2014

Psalm 110
1 The LORD says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2 The LORD sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes.
3 Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.
(NRSV)

Knowing that God is willing and able to fight our battles for us can be a great source of comfort. To be able to sit back and watch the battle rage, knowing that victory is assured, can be pretty thrilling. The difficulty comes when we begin to believe that our enemies are also The enemies of God. In that case we see God as under our command, one we can send out to do our bidding no matter what the conflict. We then become arrogant and nasty as we know that we are unstoppable and unbeatable. Our giant can crush the heads of any and all who stand against us.

Fortunately, God is willing to stand with us when we oppressed, downtrodden and in the right. God is not at our beck and call so much as on the side of justice and righteousness. God is not a celestial bully or mercenary who fights on the side of the highest bidder. When God fights with us it continues to be a struggle for us as the opposing forces are strong, entrenched and convinced of the rightness of their position. My guess is that in most conflicts God has a place on each side. Most arguments, conflicts, battles and wars are made by folks who have a kernel of truth, justice and righteousness surrounded by self-justification, pettiness, scarcity thinking, arrogance and lust for power. God supports the justice and righteousness and joins the battle against the rest.

On every side of a conflict there are voices raised in a call for justice and righteousness. We want to ignore those voices since they fly in the face of our other reasons for this battle. Those voices call us to see and appreciate the personhood of those with whom we disagree. Those voices call us to move toward justice and righteousness even, and especially, when it means we do well to repent of the thoughts, words and actions that lead away from the justice and righteousness we claim to seek. Those voices call to turn to God.


August 11, 2014
LCM manifold@lightbound.com
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