Psalm Meditation 887
Proper 6 (Father’s Day)
June 18, 2017

Psalm 131
1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time on and forevermore
(NRSV)

There is nothing quite like the sensation of curling up on mom’s lap. For those for whom this is a pleasant memory, it is love, comfort, security, acceptance, and a host of other positive feelings all in one moment. It may be a distant memory of having fit on mom’s lap completely or a fairly recent experience of being in mom’s lap and spilling into the space next to her. The psalmist says this is what it can be like to be in the presence of God.

The first verse recognizes that we can come striding in as if we are equal to God, expecting our needs to be met on our orders and timeline. When this is our approach to God we will know what needs to be done, when it needs to done, and what to expect when God finally sees things in the proper light and does things our way. Most of the time we can expect to be disappointed for a variety of reasons. God seldom works on our timeline in the exact way we expect.

It is often when things don’t work out the way we hoped and planned that we find ourselves seeking the comfort of mom’s lap. We may or may not want mom to fix things. What we want is to know that we are loved and cared for despite and because of what is going on around us. God can be, is, that source of hope and comfort for us throughout our lives, as individuals all the way up through all of humanity.

June 12, 2017
LCM