Psalm Meditation 1289 ¶Transfiguration Sunday ¶March 2, 2025 ¶Psalm 17 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2017&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶It is so much easier to see ourselves as victims than as oppressors. As victims we get to identify with the psalmist and all the others who have reason to depend on God for refuge, safety, and the strength to stand firm in the face of those more powerful than we. Yes, victims suffer all sorts of ills at the hands of the oppressors, however they do not have a lot of responsibility for the ills that befall them. “None of this is your fault.” is a statement that offers a victim release from responsibility for their suffering even if it does not relieve it. ¶Beginning in verse 8, the psalmist asks to be delivered from those who rain down evil onto those who take refuge in God. The folks who bring this evil close their hearts to pity, speak arrogantly, surround their victims to cast them down to the ground. These are the folks who find ways to make adversaries feel less than human. If they are not human we can treat them as the animals we perceive them to be. I know I have lists of ‘those people’ who are ‘other’ than me and mine. These are the people who turn us from victims into victimizers, those who have the need to turn from our evil ways to the shadow of God’s wings. ¶Once we have reveled in our victimhood, as the ‘good guys’ in a psalm, we do well to look at ourselves through the eyes of those we may have victimized, intentionally or inadvertently. It will be a difficult process since we will have already depersonalized and dehumanized some of those people. That means we do well to look at ourselves, our victims, and victimizers through the eyes of God, who sees each of through eyes of steadfast love and concern. God calls each of us to be free of both victimhood and victimization, to be whole persons in a whole world. ¶February 24, 2025 ¶LCM