Psalm Meditation 911
First Sunday of Advent
December 3, 2017

Psalm 123
1 To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until he has mercy upon us.
3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.
4 Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.
(NRSV)

The image that comes to mind is of someone desperate to be included in a group of ‘cool kids’ in school. We willingly do things to humiliate ourselves because we were asked or told to do this thing. We may feel as if we have been included even as friends see that we are being treated as a court jester or a well trained pet. Because we are so desperate to be a part of the group we don’t notice that we are being treated more as a possession than as an equal in the group.

When we see that we are being treated badly we long for release from the contempt we have been experiencing and a return to the group of which we were a genuine part. For the psalmist this means turning to God for release from oppression and contempt. The situation is likely more involved and just as traumatic as the above treatment by the ‘cool kids.’ God does not pluck us out of trouble and set us back on the firm footing of a different group. God gives us the courage and wherewithal to see what we have become and to take the steps to leave one group in order to move into a group that includes us as an equal.

Having turned to God with the realization that the priorities of the world are not finally fulfilling we engage in building relationships with those we value and who value us in return. These new relationships, based in mutual love and respect, show us that much of what gives meaning to our lives cannot be held in our hands or stored in boxes. In the realm of God we are able to see others as unique children of God without considering social status or economic standing. As people of God we are able to give and receive the gifts each of us has to offer.

November 27, 2017
LCM