Psalm Meditation 766
First Sunday in Lent
February 22, 2015

Psalm 15
1 O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;
3 who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
5 who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.
(NRSV)

In the days before psychology we could judge ourselves and others by our actions rather than our motives. It was possible to walk blamelessly when the standard was what we did. There was not a lot of soul searching and hand wringing about why we did what we did, the concern was for doing the right thing. In that mindset it is possible to walk blamelessly, do what is right and speak the truth from our hearts.

Once we add the motive, we find trouble. We second guess ourselves, wondering, not only if we are doing the right thing we wonder if we are doing it for the right reason. We judge others, knowing that our people are doing things for the right reasons and that those people are acting out of selfish motives. We spend so much time and effort working out our motivation we end up doing nothing. No matter what our actions, we can question our own motives or listen to those willing to do it for us.

Maybe we can give ourselves a break this week, today. If we spend less time fretting over our own motives and more time on doing something that points to God we can look back at the end of week or the end or the day and know that God has been served, maybe even glorified by our actions. As we act more than fret we will have less energy to question the motives of others as well. Our motives will always be mixed: actions that point to God will point to God no matter why we do them.

February 16, 2015
LCM