Psalm Meditation 984
Second Sunday of Easter
April 28, 2019

Psalm 101
1 I will sing of loyalty and of justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing.
2 I will study the way that is blameless. When shall I attain it? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house;
3 I will not set before my eyes anything that is base. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.
4 Perverseness of heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.
5 One who secretly slanders a neighbor I will destroy. A haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not tolerate.
6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, so that they may live with me; whoever walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit shall remain in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue in my presence.
8 Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all evildoers from the city of the LORD.
(NRSV)

The psalmist seems to be a ruler, outlining to God the kind of people who will serve in the royal court. If this is a psalm of David it is interesting that the people who will not be welcomed in the administration are those who are guilty of the sins that will be the downfall of David. According to my psychologist friends there are two broad categories of people who drive us nuts; the people who are so unlike us that we can’t figure out what makes them tick, and the people who are like us in the ways we don’t like and often deny about ourselves.

David is telling God that there is no room in his life for people who fall away from God, who do things that are not in line with who God is and the demands God places on us. Perverseness of heart, secretly destroying a neighbor with slander have no place around David. Things like adultery and attempting to let someone believe that the child of an affair may have come from the husband. If that doesn’t work, have the husband killed so there is only one side of the story. I am so glad that I am not like that and that I don’t know or know of any one like that.

Except that we are all like that at some point and to some degree. Who is it that makes you crazy when you think about them? How are you like them? How often do we judge people for the things they do because we don’t like ourselves much when we do those same things? So, we can make our lists of people and characteristics that drive us crazy when we are around them, or we can point ourselves in the direction that leads us away from hypocrisy and moves us toward faithfulness.

April 22, 2019
LCM