Psalm Meditation 1001
Proper 16
August 25, 2019

Psalm 4
1 Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.
2 How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame? How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.
4 When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.
6 There are many who say, “O that we might see some good! Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!”
7 You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound.
8 I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.
(NRSV)

Each of us has a skill set that we make look easy. Our motion is fluid, our delivery is smooth, we are able to adapt in the face of missteps and accidents. Others look at our work and believe that they could do that with the same fluidity that we exhibit. And they are dreadfully mistaken. Our ease comes from years of hard work, practice, adaptation, and failure. All those years have taught us what to do in place of our natural reaction.

Something as ‘simple’ as prayer takes a lot of practice. We listen to others pray, we use prayers that others have written for our use, we adapt those practices and prayers for our own use, we realize that it is more than going through the motions as we build a relationship of trust with God. We go from asking for our laundry list to be filled to listening for ways we can grow in our relationship with God. The psalmist hears many say, “O that we might see some good! Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!” These folks are expecting God to do all the work. While they are couched in more formal language, they are saying, “gimme, gimme, gimme.” The psalmist has offered right sacrifices and put trust in God. The psalmist has done the hard work of building a relationship with God.

The reason we make our skill set look easy is because we continue to put in the hard work of practicing those skills. We keep ourselves from getting complacent by working on our skills on a regular basis. The psalmist encourages us to do the same thing in our relationship with God. Keep the lines of communication open, keep doing things together, keep practicing the presence of God.

August 19, 2019
LCM