Psalm Meditation 1012
Proper 27
November 10, 2019

Psalm 81
1 Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
2 Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph, when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a voice I had not known:
6 “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.
13 O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their doom would last forever.
16 I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
(NRSV)

The activity of God is easier to see in the past than in the present. We know that God was at work in the life of the psalmist because we can see it. Even when one of the psalmists is lamenting, wondering if God is at work in that particular time, we can see that it is God working for the good of the people. The psalmist is able to recount the activity of God in the past without knowing that the voice being heard is the voice of God.

Though we can see God at work in the past we have trouble seeing God at work in the present tense of our lives. We cry out in prayer for God to help us in whatever trouble we find ourselves not realizing how active God is until we look back at the situation from a distance. The perspective of the long view helps us see all the places God was at work in our lives, giving us hope, comfort, and steadfast love.

In the midst of a crisis we do not have any awareness of the help and hope available to us. I know of people who had to be rescued from drowning in water that came up to their waist. The swift current, panic and other conditions kept them from being able to see beyond their immediate need. The presence and providence of God are always a part of our lives. God continues to feed us and sustain us even if we are not aware that it is God at work among us.

November 4, 2019
LCM