Psalm Meditation 1119 ¶First Sunday of Advent ¶November 28, 2021 ¶Psalm 73 1 Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek. 5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment. 7 Their eyes swell out with fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. 8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. 9 They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth. 10 Therefore the people turn and praise them, and find no fault in them. 11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 12 Such are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. 13 All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning. 15 If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,” I would have been untrue to the circle of your children. 16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end. 18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 20 They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms. 21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, 22 I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you. 23 Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 Indeed, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to those who are false to you. 28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works. (NRSV) ¶Most of us have looked with envy on rich people at some point in our lives. We are convinced that if we just had that much money we would have no problems in life. Being rich seems to be a life with no problems, no difficulties, no worries. It isn’t even about buying our way out of trouble, it is not having any trouble to speak of to begin with. Rich people seem to be better than folks who are not on that financial level. As a child I told my dad I wanted a million dollars, and he responded with a short list of worries that wealthy people have. The one I remember is, ‘who will take care of all that money for you, and can they be trusted?’ ¶In the biblical era it was thought that there was only so much wealth available in the world. That meant that the only way someone could have enough resources to be considered rich was to take the resources of another. A comfortable amount of assets was due to God’s blessing; too many assets was due to sinful greed and inattention to the needs of others. We have discovered that the limits of wealth and resources are not as limited as once thought, it is still true that to become noticeably wealthy takes the time and energy of countless others. Most of those others are not rewarded at the level of their contribution. ¶The psalmist leads us through the process of realizing that material resources are not as desirable and durable as a relationship with God. For the psalmist, it is better to be surrounded by those who will willingly share of their resources in a time of need, than to have gobs of resources that we have to guard to keep other people from taking them for themselves. The wealth that is relationships is worth so much more and is more long lasting than any amount of money. Material resources are good until they get in the way of relationships. “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works.” ¶November 22, 2021 ¶LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/