Psalm Meditation 1140 ¶Second Sunday of Easter ¶April 24, 2022 ¶Psalm 9 1 I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. 2 I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. 3 When my enemies turned back, they stumbled and perished before you. 4 For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. 5 You have rebuked the nations, you have destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. 6 The enemies have vanished in everlasting ruins; their cities you have rooted out; the very memory of them has perished. 7 But the LORD sits enthroned forever, he has established his throne for judgment. 8 He judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with equity. 9 The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you. 11 Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion. Declare his deeds among the peoples. 12 For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted. 13 Be gracious to me, O LORD. See what I suffer from those who hate me; you are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death, 14 so that I may recount all your praises, and, in the gates of daughter Zion, rejoice in your deliverance. 15 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid has their own foot been caught. 16 The LORD has made himself known, he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah 17 The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. 18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever. 19 Rise up, O LORD! Do not let mortals prevail; let the nations be judged before you. 20 Put them in fear, O LORD; let the nations know that they are only human. Selah (NRSV) ¶When a fight breaks out, it is likely that a crowd will gather. In some cases the crowd gathers before the fight starts to egg on and encourage the fighters. Imagine that God is in the circle and we are interested onlookers. We want God to defend our honor, to destroy those who have picked on us for far too long with no relief in sight. Now that God is on the scene we are getting ourselves all pumped up for the beating that God is about to hand down to everyone who has ever crossed us. ¶It is an intriguing image, and not likely to play out. God is not one for weapons of violence, preferring the making of new relationships over the making of enemies. We join many generations of God’s people who have turned God into one of us by ascribing our own violent tendencies to God. We do this for no other reason than to justify our violence and brutality against our enemies. When Jews and Christians were underdogs in the world, there was reason to stand up for ourselves with some force. Now that Christians are such a large and powerful force perhaps it is time for us to make ourselves in God’s image rather than continuing to squeeze God into our own. ¶God continues to execute judgment on all people. God judges the evil within each one of us as well as the righteousness that each of us holds within us. When we want our enemies destroyed, we usually mean those outside of us. God calls us to root out and destroy the evil within ourselves to make room for more and more righteous thoughts and actions that lead us to be ever more righteous folk. ¶April 19 , 2022 ¶LCM