Psalm Meditation 960
Proper 27
November11, 2018

Psalm 94
1 O LORD, you God of vengeance, you God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; give to the proud what they deserve!
3 O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the stranger, they murder the orphan,
7 and they say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
8 Understand, O dullest of the people; fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who disciplines the nations, he who teaches knowledge to humankind, does he not chastise?
11 The LORD knows our thoughts, that they are but an empty breath.
12 Happy are those whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law,
13 giving them respite from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot is slipping,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who contrive mischief by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous, and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will repay them for their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out.
(NRSV)

We like to see ourselves as the protagonists, the ones God will rescue from the evil oppressors. God will take our weakness and turn it into strength. God will take our victimhood and allow us to rise up as conquerors. God will take our precarious footing and place us on steady ground. That is the way we like to look at these psalms. What if these are written by and for the people we readily take advantage? We if this psalm is written by those we fail to notice, and if we do notice we discount them as inconsequential? What if we are the bad guys?

Most of us are able to look up and see people with more power and influence than we ever hope to wield. We see those who can buy and sell us and we feel as if we are victims because of our lack. We feel oppressed because someone up there can tell us what to do. We feel righteously indignant because there are those whose independence makes us feel dependent. We look up and see that ‘those’ people need lessons in how to treat people like us. We could, and don’t look down to see those who are looking up at us with the same sense of oppression.

While we like to be the ones God rescues from the bad and reckless big people, many of us are bad and reckless to those who look up at us from lower rungs on the ladder of wealth and power. Each of us does well to consider how those with less than we might see us. Are we seen as kind and generous or angry and stingy? Are we seen as gentle and understanding or as insistent bullies? Are we perceived as those who lead people to God or those who drive people to God? Are we the good people we see ourselves to be or as those in need of discipline and training at the hand of God? Do we look to God for strength or do we stand against God in iniquity?

November 7, 2018
LCM