Psalm Meditation 809
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 20, 2015

Psalm 79
1 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.
5 How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.
8 Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.
11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.
12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!
13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
(NRSV)

It seems that the harshest judgment of God is reserved for those who have been claimed as followers and children. We, like the psalmist, would much rather that God’s ire be reserved for ‘those people,’ the ones outside the fold, the ones who are even worse at following the ways of God than we are. If only God would beat up on the bad guys and leave us alone to follow the ways of God when it suits us. However, it is hard to follow the rules when they are unknown. As we are more strict with our own children, so God is more apt to judge us when we stray.

It is so much easier to see the sins of folks whose ways already trouble us that we can fail to look at ourselves as people in need of correction and redirection. We would rather stand up and point our fingers at the faults and flaws of ‘those people’ than look to where we are in need of confession and repentance. Yes, those people may be in the wrong by our standards, however we can actually do something about our own behavior.

God is with us when other people are out to get us through no fault of our own, because God loves us. God is with us when people are out to get us because we have done something to provoke them, because God loves us beyond measure. That God is with us does not mean that we are always right, that we deserve better than anyone else or that we are exempt from humility, grace, forgiveness and repentance.

December 14, 2015
LCM