Psalm Meditation 1006
Proper 21
September 29, 2019

Psalm 80
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!
3 Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted.
16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
(NRSV)

Out of this whole psalm, one sentence continues to jump out at me, “Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.” I too have said something like this and it has been as false for me as it was for the psalmist and the people of that time. When we are in a situation from which we see no easy way out, we call on God to help us. As a part of our request we make this deal, ‘if you get me out of this, I will do that for you for the rest of my life.’ Most of the time, our promises are sincere in the moment. Other times, we are aware that we are making a promise that we can’t possibly keep—and we make it anyway. Verse 18 strikes me as this kind of promise.

There is, by the time of the psalm, a long history of people making and breaking promises to each other and to God with varying degrees of sincerity. Without questioning the intent of the psalmist to keep this word, it seems a foolish promise to make for a whole nation and forever. I know I am reading my own guilt into this, remembering one particular bargaining session in which I made a promise I knew I was unable/unwilling to keep. In high school I promised God that I would go to church at least once a week for the rest of my life if God would get my brothers and me out of the ditch we were in. I was especially intent on God getting us out of this one because I had been partially responsible for getting us in there in the first place.

I have no doubt that God loves to hear from us, no matter what it going on in our lives. The celebrations, the intercessions, and laments are all connections we initiate with God to deepen the relationship God initiated with us. Because God knows us better than we know ourselves, I imagine that there is a certain amount of eye rolling on God’s part when we make promises that are sincere even though there is no way we can live out the promise. And more serious eye rolls when we make promises that we both know are disingenuous/insincere even as we make them. Fortunately, God is with us and loves us no matter what.

September 23, 2019
LCM