Psalm Meditation 1265 ¶Proper 19 ¶September 15, 2024 ¶Psalm 125 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+125&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶We like to think that God is like we are when it comes to rules. Those who follow the rules get rewarded and those who don’t get punished. It isn’t even about winning and losing, it is that eventually the bad people get found out and pay the price for the bad stuff they have done and the good people get some kind of good stuff as a thank you and acknowledgment for doing the right thing more often than not. After all, it’s only fair that punishments and rewards match our behaviors, even if it isn’t right away. ¶But what if God is not like we are? What if God treats us as if we are each beloved children. We reap the consequences of our actions for good and ill, while being loved beyond our understanding. So, God won’t lead ‘those’ people into places of fire and isolation any more than God will lead one of us to a place like that. God will discipline (teach) us how to be the people we are called to be and lead us toward a life of loving community together with all on whom God lays a lovin claim. You know, everybody. ¶While it is human to believe that we are good and all of ‘those’ people who are not like us are bad, that doesn’t seem to be the way God works among us. God desires that we be drawn into the ever expanding circle of those who know they are loved by God. That way certainly is not the ‘right’ way by our standards of fairness, and yet God does seem to love us as well as those we don’t like, including those who don’t/can’t/won’t acknowledge God’s claim on their lives for whatever reason. ¶September 9, 2024 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1128 ¶Fourth Sunday After Epiphany ¶January 30, 2022 ¶Psalm 125 1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. 2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time on and forevermore. 3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, so that the righteous might not stretch out their hands to do wrong. 4 Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts. 5 But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways the Lord will lead away with evildoers. Peace be upon Israel! (NRSV) ¶When we think about mountains we concentrate on their strength, majesty, and seeming permanence. We don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how those mountains came to be. We don’t think about the stresses and pressure that have been applied to bring a mountain into being. Maybe God decided a mountain belonged right there and suddenly it appeared out of nothing. Even then the mountain is made of levels and layers that bear and produce tons of force on each other that hold it together and push it apart. ¶The psalmist’s view of mountains is from the outside. All we usually see of a mountain is that strength and permanence. We may be lucky enough to know someone who stands firm against all the temptations that assail a person in a lifetime, the one who can always call on some source of calm and strength in time of need however great or small that need may be. They can be intimidating to those of us who see ourselves as mere foothills on our best days. Their roots and resources seem so much deeper than ours and they are the ones we call on when our strength is spent. ¶The truth is, those people are filled with their own struggles and burdens. Not that they see us as an additional burden when we approach them. Quite the contrary; helping us helps them in their own struggles as they find new perspective by offering themselves to us. Each time we weather a storm, we find new strength, new connections, new roots. As we are able to step back from ourselves to see a broader view we may see that there are folks who see us as the mountain to which their foothills lead. We see our inner strains and struggles, those who look to us for strength and connection see our constancy, perseverance, and faithfulness ¶January 24, 2022 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 829
Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 8, 2016

Psalm 125
1 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time on and forevermore.
3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, so that the righteous might not stretch out their hands to do wrong.
4 Do good, O LORD, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts.
5 But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways the LORD will lead away with evildoers. Peace be upon Israel!
(NRSV)

We are not the first generation, and we are not likely to be the last that calls something faithfulness to God that is actually pretty far from the faith to which God calls us and we claim to respond. God has a soft spot for the downtrodden, the oppressed and the excluded so when someone claims that God supports the person/people in power it is likely not the voice of God that is being heard. When our God wants us to be rich, to have everything our little hearts desire, it is not the God of Abraham and Sarah.

We do our best to make it sound as if we are the downtrodden as folks begin to question and challenge our power position. Even then we are not the downtrodden and oppressed for whom God’s heart beats. When we look up at those in power and know that it is a matter of time before we trade places with them we are not in the forefront of God’s mind and heart. The word of God is not for those whose power is waxing or waning it is for those for whom power is a foreign concept.

The word, power and presence of God are for those whose voices are not heard in the halls of power. The chances are good that if you are reading this the word of God is not directed in your favor. There is a voice around you whispering a need. God hears it and invites us to quiet our power seeking, power challenging rhetoric long enough to hear the voices drowned out by our rancor. ‘Be still and know that I am God’ is also an invitation to be still in order to hear the voices of the people of God.

May 2, 2016
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/