Psalm Meditation 1155 ¶Proper 14 ¶August 7, 2022 ¶Psalm 39 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+39&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶Many of us have a love/hate relationship with God. We know that God loves us, cares for us, and wants what is best for us. The difficulty lies in the knowledge that what is best for us is not always pleasant. Things as simple as naps and baths were once battle grounds for us, thinking we were too old for such trivialities as rest and cleanliness. How many of us who fought those naps and baths with tears and tantrums look forward to both a bath/shower, and a nap these days? What does God ask us to do or endure that seems terrible at the time, yet afterward seems to have turned out well? ¶The psalmist wants to be delivered from the bonds of sin without any suffering, as if that is possible. Many of our sinful habits carry a hefty price for us to be free of them. Some exact a physical price, some a spiritual cost, and others drain us physically as well as spiritually. A statement that has been helpful to me through the years is, “Every action has a cost and a promise.” We have to weigh which is greater as we make our choice. Sometimes we choose the one with the high cost in hopes that there will be a worthy promise at the end. It is painful when we discover we have made the wrong choice. ¶I imagine that the gaze of God is a parental look, the one that stops us in our tracks and makes us want to evaluate every life choice we have made up to this moment. Once caught in the gaze, we know we will never smile or laugh again for as long as we live. It is only as our parent looks away that we see any hope for the future. Having endured that gaze to its end we see that it has love and concern as a part of it. At our best, the angry gaze is not the final expression. In the case of God, anger is certainly not the final word. The love, care and concern that God has for us holds us far longer than any anger on God’s part. ¶August 2, 2022 ¶LCM