Psalm Meditation 1290 ¶First Sunday in Lent ¶March 9, 2025 ¶Psalm 12 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2012&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶It is a lot easier to fall into despair than it is to make our way to hope. Despair is feeling beat down and giving up on ourselves and everyone else, past, present, and future. We block all the entrances to our souls and psyches, and wonder why no one comes to buoy us up and give us the hope we so desperately want and need. It must be because there are no good people left, our lives have been overtaken by the fear mongers, the haters, and all the other folks who can ruin the day, and beyond for us. ¶Hope, though, takes work. We have to claw our way through the gruesome parts of life in the world, in order to see that it is the folks who live in the depths and refuse to despair who are the real source of hope. The unicorns and rainbows crowd are not the source of hope, they often don’t have space in their lives for people who suffer and ache. For them, those who suffer deserve it. The rainbows and unicorns are reserved only for those, like them, who have been served up life on a platter of deliciousness and ease. ¶Those who live in hope have had their dreams broken to pieces, fallen into despair and climbed back out with the help of God and God’s people. They know that even if we never achieve our dreams, we are in the presence of God, who is the source of the good things that restore us in ways that all the ‘stuff’ of life simply cannot. People of God probably won’t be rich in the materialistic sense, however they will have a wealth of memories, of friends, families, and deep, abiding relationships that last beyond all the ‘stuff’ the world has to offer. ¶March 3, 2025 ¶LCM