Psalm Meditation 776
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 3, 2015

Psalm 66
1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name.” Selah
5 Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot.
There we rejoiced in him,
7 who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations—let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah
8 Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs;
12 you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows,
14 those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
17 I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.
(NRSV)

There was a time in each of our lives that the only way we could make ourselves heard was through our voices. We cooed and cried and laughed and screamed to communicate our wants and needs to those around us. As our bodies developed we found new ways of communicating with those around us. We could smile and frown, walk and run, punch and pat to let folks know our needs and wants. At some point we learn to push the buttons of a keypad and we learn to write. At that point we have the ability to reach beyond the sound of our voice to touch folks in a variety of ways.

The psalmist uses the written word to reach through generations to touch us with this word of praise. All these years later we are invited to participate in the joy of being in the presence of God. Was this psalmist a person who could not express joy through singing and dancing or one who was skilled in a variety of means of communication? We will not know that any time soon. We know that this person was a psalmist who wanted to share the excitement and enthusiasm of having been blessed in a variety of ways by the ever present God.

Whether our words, actions and images go viral and spread across the world or are only heard and seen by the folks to whom we address them God hears and sees. Whether our words, actions and images are passed on through generations or are deleted, discarded and destroyed soon after they leave our presence God knows what we have done and said. God knows us and loves us no matter what. While the psalmist may have known that the steadfast love of God could be removed from us for some reason, I am convinced that the steadfast love of God is steadfast and lasts through all generations because it is the nature of God to love steadfastly. Praise God.

April 27, 2015
LCM