Psalm Meditation 1106 Proper 17 August 29, 2021 Psalm 146 1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long. 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. 4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish. 5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; 7 who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. 10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord! (NRSV) Most of us don’t know who drew our dividing lines, however we are sure which side we have chosen as our own. We will put our trust in the prince/princess who keeps our toes on our chosen line and rallies us against everyone else. Those who have made any other choice are not simply different, they are wrong. If our prince/princess wavers even slightly from the prescribed line they run the risk of being pushed aside in favor of the next one who will give us what we want to hear. There are times in which our lines are drawn in the sand, they are flexible, changeable, able to give and take with some fluidity. Other times our lines are set in stone and they do not give at all. We would rather lose friends and former compatriots than see our crisply drawn line change even slightly. We will take our disagreement to a dangerous and deadly conclusion rather than change our minds or our behavior. The psalmist invites us to put our trust in God rather than in a set of arguments that have no flex or give. The way of God leads to hope, faith, justice, freedom, and vision for all just to name a few. All of these are for each person and are not confined to our group alone. The way of God offers a place for each and all, a place of honor and respect. Even those whose plans and paths are ruined will find shelter in the love of God. August 23, 2021 LCM