Psalm Meditation 1098 Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time July 4, 2021 Psalm 120 1 In my distress I cry to the Lord, that he may answer me: 2 “Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.” 3 What shall be given to you? And what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? 4 A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree! 5 Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar. 6 Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. 7 I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war. (NRSV) The feeling of being a fish out of water is familiar to some of us. It may be that we are the only one who holds a particular opinion in our circle of friends, the one who has had an experience that sets us apart from the gang, or the one who has a characteristic that is obviously different from the rest of the group. In some cases we are accepted anyway and in others we are kept on the fringes of the group for fear that whatever is different about us may be contagious in some form. It is possible that the psalmist is distressed by words or silence that leads the group to believe that the psalmist is just like all the rest of the folks. The prayer is that the psalmist will be set free from the deceit that has drained so much energy in the struggle to keep silent. ‘O God, burn the lies from my lips and tongue so that I may speak my truth even to those who disagree with me.’ Some groups tolerate differences of opinion and others do not. Our hope is to find a community in which we can get along, through agreement or tolerance of disagreement. If we find ourselves thrown into a group in which we do not fit, we can hope to keep our integrity intact in some way, to find a small group of comfort within the larger group, to pray that we will continue to experience the love of God despite feeling no love from the group in which we find ourselves. June 28, 2021 LCM