Showing posts with label Psalm 109. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 109. Show all posts
Monday, February 26, 2024
Psalm Meditation 1237
¶Third Sunday in Lent
¶March 3, 2024
¶Psalm 109
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+109&version=NRSVUE
(NRSV)
¶In the Revised Standard Version, verse six does not begin with, ‘they say.’ so we are left to wonder whether this is the psalmist asking that this happen to all the accusers or are the accusers saying this about the psalmist? In verse twenty it seems that the two groups are wishing the same fate on each other. “Let all of these terrible things happen to those people so that I can go on my merry way, knowing that the people I hate are left in the dust of vengeance.” Ah, would that God was willing to follow our orders as to who was next in line for destruction.
¶If God were as capricious and vengeful as we can be, it is hard to imagine that there would be anyone left alive who was not under some destructive curse or other for the ways that we treat those around us, especially those who are not like us. God is neither capricious, impulsive and unpredictable, nor vengeful, seeking to harm someone for a perceived injury. God is love, pure and simple. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5a NRSVUE) Much as we would like for God to do our dirty work of eliminating everyone who annoys us, or worse, it is not going to happen. God may work in us to turn enemies to friends, however God is not in the business of destroying people.
¶It is certainly appropriate to feel anger and frustration when people and things around us do not go to our plan for our lives. And we can hope and pray for the destruction and end of things like poverty, disease, and injustice. We can hope and pray all we want for God to destroy people, as long as we know, too, that God is loving beyond measure and will not do away with anyone simply because we want it to happen. “With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. For God stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.”
¶February 26, 2024
¶LCM
Monday, March 23, 2020
Psalm Meditation 1032
Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 29, 2020
Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the Lord, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
When someone says bad things about us or condemns us to hell, our first reaction is to consign them to the same place. It may be for something we did to them, or they may have their own reasons for wishing us ill. For whatever reason, we are willing to trade insults and condemnation until one of us ‘wins’ and the other ‘loses.’ While the list of curses does not go back and forth between the two parties, the psalmist runs through the list of curses and prays that God will send those same curses onto those leveling charges against the psalmist.
Our inclination is to wish evil on those who wish evil on us. We do not spend much energy wanting to understand their point of view, we go right to blaming them as they have blamed us. ‘I can’t possibly be in the wrong, it must all be on your side of the equation.’ We lash out with the same intensity with which we have been attacked. If the offense is deep we will call on God to deliver us from this terrible person by intervening on our behalf, with destruction that will render that other person/group ineffective or totally nonexistent.
The psalmist deals with charges, curses, and insults in a typically human manner. It doesn’t really teach us anything while calling on God to retaliate against our accusers for our sake. God does not respond the way we ask. God has a way of letting us fight our own battles before teaching us that there are other ways to go about disagreements. “For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.” even when we are not on the needy side.
March 23, 2020
LCM
Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 29, 2020
Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the Lord, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
When someone says bad things about us or condemns us to hell, our first reaction is to consign them to the same place. It may be for something we did to them, or they may have their own reasons for wishing us ill. For whatever reason, we are willing to trade insults and condemnation until one of us ‘wins’ and the other ‘loses.’ While the list of curses does not go back and forth between the two parties, the psalmist runs through the list of curses and prays that God will send those same curses onto those leveling charges against the psalmist.
Our inclination is to wish evil on those who wish evil on us. We do not spend much energy wanting to understand their point of view, we go right to blaming them as they have blamed us. ‘I can’t possibly be in the wrong, it must all be on your side of the equation.’ We lash out with the same intensity with which we have been attacked. If the offense is deep we will call on God to deliver us from this terrible person by intervening on our behalf, with destruction that will render that other person/group ineffective or totally nonexistent.
The psalmist deals with charges, curses, and insults in a typically human manner. It doesn’t really teach us anything while calling on God to retaliate against our accusers for our sake. God does not respond the way we ask. God has a way of letting us fight our own battles before teaching us that there are other ways to go about disagreements. “For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.” even when we are not on the needy side.
March 23, 2020
LCM
Monday, September 17, 2018
Psalm Meditation 953
Proper 20
September 23, 2018
Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD , and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD , of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD , have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD ; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
It is easy to get into accusation matches, blaming those around us for the evil that comes to us. If we listen closely we discover that many of those same accusations are being used against us by the very people we are accusing. In some cases we are simply copying the charges that others level against us, in most cases both sides are mutually guilty. We have done and sad bad things about the other because ‘they started it.’ One side either starts out with more power or is able to shift the power dynamic by bringing in allies and supporters who believe that they are the wronged party.
The psalmist brings God into the mix. God has a way of sorting through the messy situations we find ourselves in. There is something fair and impartial about God, something that won’t let us take an accusation against another farther than it needs to go. An elementary teacher I know used to short circuit the tattling that runs rampant through elementary classes by asking the student doing the tattling how they had contributed to the situation. ‘What did you do to start or continue to the situation you are trying to get someone else in trouble for?’ Denial was the first response; when pressed they could let the teacher know what they had done to keep the conflict going to the point that someone needed to intervene to put a stop to it. God has a way of keeping an eye on each one of us, already knowing how we participated in the escalation of the conflict, and bringing us to repentance and forgiveness.
There are situations in which one party is singled out so that those in power can exercise their dominance over the people around them. Some people are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and they get chosen as the target of the influential and powerful people around them. Other times we add fuel to a fire that would have gone out on its own if we had only let it. Either way it is good to bring God into the situation. Looking through the eyes of God we can see where we need to lean on God for the strength to face the evil tide in which we have been taken up, and where we need to offer those around us our own repentance for our evil acts and forgiveness for those evil done against us. Either way God, “stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.”
September 17, 2018
LCM
Proper 20
September 23, 2018
Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD , and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD , of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD , have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD ; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
It is easy to get into accusation matches, blaming those around us for the evil that comes to us. If we listen closely we discover that many of those same accusations are being used against us by the very people we are accusing. In some cases we are simply copying the charges that others level against us, in most cases both sides are mutually guilty. We have done and sad bad things about the other because ‘they started it.’ One side either starts out with more power or is able to shift the power dynamic by bringing in allies and supporters who believe that they are the wronged party.
The psalmist brings God into the mix. God has a way of sorting through the messy situations we find ourselves in. There is something fair and impartial about God, something that won’t let us take an accusation against another farther than it needs to go. An elementary teacher I know used to short circuit the tattling that runs rampant through elementary classes by asking the student doing the tattling how they had contributed to the situation. ‘What did you do to start or continue to the situation you are trying to get someone else in trouble for?’ Denial was the first response; when pressed they could let the teacher know what they had done to keep the conflict going to the point that someone needed to intervene to put a stop to it. God has a way of keeping an eye on each one of us, already knowing how we participated in the escalation of the conflict, and bringing us to repentance and forgiveness.
There are situations in which one party is singled out so that those in power can exercise their dominance over the people around them. Some people are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and they get chosen as the target of the influential and powerful people around them. Other times we add fuel to a fire that would have gone out on its own if we had only let it. Either way it is good to bring God into the situation. Looking through the eyes of God we can see where we need to lean on God for the strength to face the evil tide in which we have been taken up, and where we need to offer those around us our own repentance for our evil acts and forgiveness for those evil done against us. Either way God, “stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.”
September 17, 2018
LCM
Monday, June 30, 2014
Psalm Meditation 733
Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 6, 2014
Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O LORD my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
The best way to level charges against someone as the psalmist claims has been done in this case is to convince ourselves that this other is nothing like us. Whether it is former friends who have decided that this person is no longer one of ‘us’ or a group of strangers who have determined that the psalmist is not a person, the effect is the same. Once we demonize and dehumanize a person or group we can make all sorts of assumptions about how they behave and why they do the things they do. And it is usually for the worst of reasons. When folks take drastic and violent steps to be noticed, our assumptions are that there is something wrong with them and it is a shame they turned out that way. We do not pause to wonder what we may have done or left undone that would give them reason to snap.
Of course, our motives are always pure and motivated by the best of intentions. Our goal is to provide the best possible environment for ourselves and those we love, and we do that by putting up shields and barriers against all of ‘those people.’ Their task, as we see it, is to destroy all the wonderful things we have worked so hard to provide for ourselves and our loved ones. It couldn’t possibly be that we have shut them out of the very things they also want for themselves and their loved ones and any move toward achieving those things is seen as a threat.
It is easy to demonize and dehumanize, even folks in our own circle who no longer fit our mold. The difficult choice is to see those others as humans beings with their own set of wants and needs that may either mesh or conflict with ours. With a scarcity mindset, we believe that we can’t all have what we want and need so we have to protect ourselves from ‘them.’ God has given us a world of abundance and asks us to live as if all those others are our brothers and sisters who have wants and needs similar to our own. The hard task before us is to find a way together that meets all of our needs and provides a lot of the wants of this human family of which we are a part.
June 30, 2014
Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 6, 2014
Psalm 109
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.
14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the LORD, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O LORD my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love.
27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
The best way to level charges against someone as the psalmist claims has been done in this case is to convince ourselves that this other is nothing like us. Whether it is former friends who have decided that this person is no longer one of ‘us’ or a group of strangers who have determined that the psalmist is not a person, the effect is the same. Once we demonize and dehumanize a person or group we can make all sorts of assumptions about how they behave and why they do the things they do. And it is usually for the worst of reasons. When folks take drastic and violent steps to be noticed, our assumptions are that there is something wrong with them and it is a shame they turned out that way. We do not pause to wonder what we may have done or left undone that would give them reason to snap.
Of course, our motives are always pure and motivated by the best of intentions. Our goal is to provide the best possible environment for ourselves and those we love, and we do that by putting up shields and barriers against all of ‘those people.’ Their task, as we see it, is to destroy all the wonderful things we have worked so hard to provide for ourselves and our loved ones. It couldn’t possibly be that we have shut them out of the very things they also want for themselves and their loved ones and any move toward achieving those things is seen as a threat.
It is easy to demonize and dehumanize, even folks in our own circle who no longer fit our mold. The difficult choice is to see those others as humans beings with their own set of wants and needs that may either mesh or conflict with ours. With a scarcity mindset, we believe that we can’t all have what we want and need so we have to protect ourselves from ‘them.’ God has given us a world of abundance and asks us to live as if all those others are our brothers and sisters who have wants and needs similar to our own. The hard task before us is to find a way together that meets all of our needs and provides a lot of the wants of this human family of which we are a part.
June 30, 2014
Monday, June 4, 2012
Psalm Meditation 625
Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 10, 2012
Psalm 109 (selected verses)
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, "Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
How do we handle ourselves when we are falsely accused? Some of us join the psalmist in heaping everything bad thing that comes to mind on those who are wishing us ill. We stomp and rant about our innocence and humility in the face of bad things, all while hoping that God will turn the tables in such a way that our accusers receive the punishments they hoped to inflict on us. Some of us accept the accusations with humility, knowing that when we stand before God we will be vindicated. The rest of us fall somewhere in between with a mix of resentment and acceptance.
Some of us will do the same things even when we are rightly accused. Because we have rationalized our behavior into something good, we are appalled that anyone would accuse us of wrong-doing. We wrap ourselves up in self-righteous God talk and refuse to see that there is at least a kernel of truth in the accusations coming our way. We want God to protect us, not only from the big meanies out to get us, we also want protection from ourselves. Somewhere below the surface we are aware that our protests and pleas of innocence are a sham. We can only hope to be judged by a loving and forgiving God rather than by our peers.
Either way the voice and presence of God are in and around us, leading us to forgiveness for ourselves and others, as well as repentance when we are wrong and humility when we are in the right. God is with us, no matter what. Whether I am among the poor and needy, or the nasty and vindictive I can give thanks that God desires justice and harmony whether it comes now or in a long slow arc. The whys and wherefores of God’s loving presence are beyond our comprehension, nevertheless we give thanks and praise in the midst of the throng.
© June 4, 2012
Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 10, 2012
Psalm 109 (selected verses)
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, "Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)
How do we handle ourselves when we are falsely accused? Some of us join the psalmist in heaping everything bad thing that comes to mind on those who are wishing us ill. We stomp and rant about our innocence and humility in the face of bad things, all while hoping that God will turn the tables in such a way that our accusers receive the punishments they hoped to inflict on us. Some of us accept the accusations with humility, knowing that when we stand before God we will be vindicated. The rest of us fall somewhere in between with a mix of resentment and acceptance.
Some of us will do the same things even when we are rightly accused. Because we have rationalized our behavior into something good, we are appalled that anyone would accuse us of wrong-doing. We wrap ourselves up in self-righteous God talk and refuse to see that there is at least a kernel of truth in the accusations coming our way. We want God to protect us, not only from the big meanies out to get us, we also want protection from ourselves. Somewhere below the surface we are aware that our protests and pleas of innocence are a sham. We can only hope to be judged by a loving and forgiving God rather than by our peers.
Either way the voice and presence of God are in and around us, leading us to forgiveness for ourselves and others, as well as repentance when we are wrong and humility when we are in the right. God is with us, no matter what. Whether I am among the poor and needy, or the nasty and vindictive I can give thanks that God desires justice and harmony whether it comes now or in a long slow arc. The whys and wherefores of God’s loving presence are beyond our comprehension, nevertheless we give thanks and praise in the midst of the throng.
© June 4, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)