Psalm Meditation 740
Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 24, 2014

Psalm 60
1 O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; now restore us!
2 You have caused the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering.
3 You have made your people suffer hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us reel.
4 You have set up a banner for those who fear you, to rally to it out of bowshot. Selah
5 Give victory with your right hand, and answer us, so that those whom you love may be rescued.
6 God has promised in his sanctuary: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem, and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter.
8 Moab is my washbasin; on Edom I hurl my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
11 O grant us help against the foe, for human help is worthless.
12 With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.
(NRSV)

For the ancients wars and battles were waged from the heavens and the people involved were tokens and pieces in the game being played by the deities of the various nations. When one side was winning it was because their heavenly rulers were paying attention to the contest on the field of battle. The folks who were losing were being ignored or rejected by their divine warlord. The psalmist is aware that Israel is not doing well in this battle, so it must mean that they have been rejected for some fault of theirs. This psalm serves to remind God of promises of victory made to Israel against the surrounding nations and to ask how this victory can be achieved without the help of God.

While we no longer see war as a chess match pitting national deities against each other, we do find ourselves wondering where God is when our own lives, or the lives of our loved ones, are not going well. We wonder why God is allowing us to suffer, to go through this particular trial without divine help. As with the psalmists, we find ourselves asking these questions of God even as we wonder why God is not present for us. In one sense we answer a part of our own question by asking it of God. We have an awareness that God is around here somewhere, we simply have no idea where. As with children playing peek-a-boo to learn that people and things do not disappear when they are not seen, we learn that God is with us even when we don’t know where or how.

Some folks are content to believe that bad things happen to us, and especially to others, as punishment from God. Others see God as present in every situation, leading and guiding us forward through the trials of our lives, or at least being present to ache and cry and suffer alongside us. I can certainly appreciate the assurance that comes from knowing that God is in charge, making things happen in each one of our lives. I find much more comfort in God being with us in every situation, giving comfort and assurance and being present with us in every circumstance of our lives.

August 18, 2014
LCM manifold@lightbound.com
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