Psalm Meditation 1011
All Saints Sunday
November 3, 2019

Psalm 55
1 Give ear to my prayer, O God; do not hide yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and answer me; I am troubled in my complaint. I am distraught
3 by the noise of the enemy, because of the clamor of the wicked. For they bring trouble upon me, and in anger they cherish enmity against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me, the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, “O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
7 truly, I would flee far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter for myself from the raging wind and tempest.”
9 Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech; for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.
12 It is not enemies who taunt me—I could bear that; it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—I could hide from them.
13 But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend,
14 with whom I kept pleasant company; we walked in the house of God with the throng.
15 Let death come upon them; let them go down alive to Sheol; for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.
16 But I call upon God, and the Lord will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice.
18 He will redeem me unharmed from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old, Selah will hear, and will humble them—because they do not change, and do not fear God.
20 My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me
21 with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war; with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
23 But you, O God, will cast them down into the lowest pit; the bloodthirsty and treacherous shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.
(NRSV)

Friendship is a wonderful thing; to have a person or group to share important and unimportant events, to bear one another’s burdens, to know each other’s secrets, to be the shelter from the storm for each other. There are the surface friendships in which we gather around an event or interest without really knowing each other very well. Even then, if we need help in that event or interest we know one of our friends will step up to help us. There are the deeper, long lasting friendships that grow into relationships that last through all the changes that individuals go through, including attitudes and inclinations.

When a friendship goes bad it is a terrible thing. The psalmist appears to be dealing with a friendship that has gone deeply sour. Not only is there a sudden distance, the rogue friend is now using information garnered from years together to inflict significant damage to the psalmist. I have an image of two people who sit next to each other in the sanctuary out of habit. In the midst of the psalm, verses 12—14, the psalmist turns to that neighbor knowing it is that person who has been spreading information that had been offered in confidence. From this moment the relationship that took years to build is ended. The psalmist calls on God to be judge against this person who has taken advantage of a friend for selfish reasons.

Tempting as it can be to turn on a friend for the sake of gain in another camp, it is not really worth the price everyone has to pay. The one betrayed loses a friend and perhaps a reputation. The betrayer gains something new that is often short-lived, as a new group of friends recognizes how readily the betrayer will compromise a friendship. God is a great friend, a model for human friendships. While the friendship of God is wonderful, we do well to cultivate and cherish friendships among ourselves. If we find that we are growing apart, we can allow the drift to continue or recommit ourselves to the relationship. We can turn a friend into an enemy by treachery and betrayal, however, the psalmist cautions against it.

October 28, 2019
LCM