Psalm Meditation 1320 ¶Proper 22 ¶October 5, 2025 ¶Psalm 40 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm40&version=NRSVUE ¶No matter what is going on, what worries, troubles, scares, or overjoys us, God is with us to offer us presence and help. God may not come in the way we want or expect, however, God is with us in each of our ups and downs. Here the psalmist is asking for release from those who would offer hurt instead of help, shame instead of honor, indifference instead of love. God is with us to stem the tide of trouble from without or within. God does not make our troubles go away, God helps us to face them with faith and love. ¶One of the ways adversaries attempt to destroy us, is by robbing us of joy. They do all they can to suck the fun out of everything, not finding humor in anything but our calamities, discouraging singing and dancing as pointless and stupid. When there is no fun, there is no energy to move in any direction. We can be easily squashed and squelched when we have no avenue for fun. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that protest songs are so effective is that they give us an excuse to sing out our fear and frustration with those who would hold us down. ¶If we ask children if they can sing, dance, draw, paint, play an instrument, they will respond with enthusiasm that they can do all of those things. Through the years, adults put standards and criteria to those activities and if we can’t do them perfectly we begin to believe we can’t do them. God has a way of giving us songs to sing, dances to dance, art to draw and paint, instruments to play whether they are dedicated or improvised instruments to play in public or for our own amusement. God puts a song in our hearts which leaks out through our voices to remind us we are held in the steadfast love of God. ¶September 29, 2025 ¶LCM