Psalm Meditation 1301 ¶Sixth Sunday of Easter ¶May 25, 2025 ¶Psalm 27 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2027&version=NRSVUE ¶Fear can protect us or ruin us, depending on how we react in the face of fear. We can allow our fear to keep us from doing things, ‘because, what if…’ or we can allow our fear to raise our awareness of danger and still walk into a situation. If we don’t know what is going to happen to us, we can go in with a heightened sense of awareness. We might get hurt, or worse, however we might find that the experience is worth the risk, which is not as great as we feared. How many of us have taken a chance, only to discover that the pay off was more than worth the risk. ¶Secure in the presence of God the psalmist is willing to take greater risks than would be possible alone. Knowing that we are not alone makes it possible to take risks that we would not consider on our own. In some cases, simply knowing that we are not the first makes the risk less intimidating. The psalmist wants to know what it means to live the way that God wants us to follow in an ever deepening way. Not content to live on the fringes as a person of God, the psalmist wants to drink deeply from the well of God’s presence and way of life. ¶The psalm ends with a word of hope that each of us can take as our own, “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” We don’t have to wait for heaven to experience the abundant goodness of God, we can find it in the delights of the world around us. ¶May 19, 2025 ¶LCM