Psalm Meditation 1029
Second Sunday in Lent
March 8, 2020

Psalm 58
1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge people fairly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
3 The wicked go astray from the womb; they err from their birth, speaking lies.
4 They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.
6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away; like grass let them be trodden down and wither.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime; like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
10 The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 People will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”
(NRSV)

It is easy to treat adversaries badly if we can see them as ‘other.’ When they have been wicked from the beginning, when they spit venom, we can wish the worst on them because they deserve it. We can call on God, whose hallmark is mercy and justice, to destroy those people with a wave of a hand. And when that happens, we good people will rejoice and dance in the streets over the utter destruction of our adversaries.

While it is cathartic to call on God to destroy our adversaries, the bad people who keep hurting us, it doesn’t work that way very often. What usually happens is that we find a way to come to an agreement around the source of our conflict and we find ourselves working together for a common good. Some people on both sides will continue to harbor a grudge that feeds their negative thoughts. These folks will never see the end of conflict even as the rest of us build friendships with our former adversaries.

In March of 1863, following a resolution of the Senate, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for a day of fasting and repentance for our sins that had divided us as a nation. For the psalmist, as well as for many of us today, it would be unthinkable to consider repentance on a national scale. “We are on the side of God, how could we possibly have anything of which to repent?” And yet, we do have much for which we can repent as individuals and as nations. “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

March 2, 2020
LCM