Psalm Meditation 1297 ¶Second Sunday of Easter ¶April 27, 2025 ¶Psalm 13 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2013&version=NRSVUE ¶Object permanence is the knowledge that even though we cannot see someone or something, it can exist. The child’s game, ‘peek-a-boo’ intends to teach children that things exist when we can’t see them. There are people for whom object permanence is not a thing. If these folks don’t see you for awhile they forget you exist in an ‘out of sight out of mind’ kind of way. If your name comes up in a conversation or you pop into their heads somehow, they know you exist, at least for that moment. ¶The psalmist is going through something that has driven any thought or feeling of the presence of God completely away. With a sudden remembrance of the presence of God in the past, the psalmist cries out to God with a renewed longing for God in this, and every situation. The pain of God’s seeming absence or impermanence is as deeply painful to the psalmist as it is to anyone who has ever had the feeling that God is absent. In addition to the feeling that God is missing, there is the feeling that any enemy is gloating over the victory signaled by the total deflation of the psalmist in the face of all of the efforts of these foes. ¶Remembering the trust in the steadfast love of God has given the psalmist new energy and focus for facing the future with the assurance of God’s salvation and presence. The reminder that God’s love and presence are steadfast, “firmly loyal and constant; unwavering” is the assurance that the psalmist needed to be able to stand firm and sing a song of the bountiful salvation that God offers to each one of us. ¶April 21, 2025 ¶LCM