Psalm Meditation 826
Fourth Sunday of Easter
March 17, 2016

Psalm 25
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.
3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!
8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
11 For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
12 Who are they that fear the LORD? He will teach them the way that they should choose.
13 They will abide in prosperity, and their children shall possess the land.
14 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distress.
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.
20 O guard my life, and deliver me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all its troubles.
(NRSV)

Sadly, I am more offended when I am looked on as evil by others than when I am quick to call out the evil of others. I can only imagine the smile that creeps onto the face of God when we call each other names and set each other apart as ‘them’ and ‘those people.’ When one of our own commits a questionable act we are quick to defend them as misunderstood and to invoke the steadfast love of God for this child of God. When someone from any one of ‘those people’ does the same thing we are just as quick to call down the wrath and judgment of God on this wantonly treacherous person.

Politics and theology generate a great deal of passion for and against a given point of view. It is interesting that we are quick to defend our own party and viewpoint in a discussion or argument, before we hear the viewpoints of ‘others.’ On more than one occasion I had a heated argument with a seminary classmate only to discover that we were in agreement on everything but the vocabulary of our discussion. We had to talk and listen long enough to realize that we were not as ‘other’ as we were determined to believe.

“All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.” My sense is that many of our newsworthy arguments are not over right vs wrong, righteous vs sinful, or patriotic vs unpatriotic so much as they are over emphasis, vocabulary and priorities. It is important to have the discussions, even when they turn to arguments, as long as we continue to listen to others and look for the steadfast love of God in the arguments and in the people.

April 11, 2016
LCM