Showing posts with label Psalm 15. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 15. Show all posts
Monday, July 28, 2025
Psalm Meditation 1311
¶Proper 13
¶August 3, 2025
¶Psalm 15
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2015&version=NRSVUE
¶To me, it seems the height of hubris/pride/arrogance to believe that any of us has earned the right to dwell in the tent of the LORD or anywhere near where God is. Yet, in the time of the psalmist, psychology had not been founded as an art or science. Outward appearance was all that anyone had to go on in judging behavior. There was no guessing what a person’s motivation might be to do or say the ‘right’ things. We judged others, and probably ourselves, on what we did and not why we did it.
¶By the psalmist’s standard there are plenty of people who match the attributes set out in this psalm. As long as we go through the motions when we are out in public, no one really needs to know that we have to bite our tongues to keep from saying some wicked cruel things about others. Neither does anyone need to know that we have to fight to keep from kicking, biting, scratching the people we think of as foolish, and/or wrong. Nor do others need to hear how secretly jealous we are of the people who get away with the mean, spiteful things that cross our minds on a regular basis.
¶This does not excuse us from giving the blameless life our best effort. We are to act, think, and speak as people of God because God loves us rather than to earn God’s love. Those who want to convince us that we have to earn God’s love are caught up in a web of lies built by those who can’t imagine that there is anything that can’t be bought or earned. God loves us, simple as that. All of our efforts at earning or deserving God’s love are chasing shadows and fog. God loves us, and all of our thoughts, words, and actions are our response to that love.
¶July 28, 2025
¶LCM
Monday, June 11, 2018
Psalm Meditation 939
Proper 6
June 17, 2018
Psalm 15
1 O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;
3 who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
5 who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.
(NRSV)
In many of the congregations I have served there is a person who has a way of reminding me to keep this list of characteristics active in my life, and especially in my preaching. Some have been gentle while others have not. Most have kept true to the list themselves as they have moved me to closer attendance to these attributes. It is good to have people around us who want us to be the best we can be, who model good behavior even as they call us to do the same. We may benefit from those who call us to be faithful so that they don’t have to be, if we can take their word of scolding as encouragement. The best are the ones who point us in the direction of faithfulness as they follow it themselves.
It is easy to name names and lay blame when none of the people being scolded/slandered is present. When we talk about ‘those’ people we can get as catty and vicious as we like. That is until our sacred someone reminds us that speaking in the presence of God, preaching as an agent of God means that we have to be more careful with our words and phrases. We can pretend to know who is good and who is evil, who is right and who is wrong, however we are only pretending when we declare that a person or group is on God’s bad list. We cannot know the mind of God concerning the condemnation of people like and unlike us much as we say we can.
We do like to have enemies and adversaries. It gives us a focus, a center for our passion, belief, and action. In every discussion, argument, and fight there is someone on every side who can call down the wrath of God on those with whom they disagree. The psalmist reminds us, that God blesses and welcomes those, “who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors.”
June 11, 2018
LCM
Proper 6
June 17, 2018
Psalm 15
1 O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;
3 who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
5 who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.
(NRSV)
In many of the congregations I have served there is a person who has a way of reminding me to keep this list of characteristics active in my life, and especially in my preaching. Some have been gentle while others have not. Most have kept true to the list themselves as they have moved me to closer attendance to these attributes. It is good to have people around us who want us to be the best we can be, who model good behavior even as they call us to do the same. We may benefit from those who call us to be faithful so that they don’t have to be, if we can take their word of scolding as encouragement. The best are the ones who point us in the direction of faithfulness as they follow it themselves.
It is easy to name names and lay blame when none of the people being scolded/slandered is present. When we talk about ‘those’ people we can get as catty and vicious as we like. That is until our sacred someone reminds us that speaking in the presence of God, preaching as an agent of God means that we have to be more careful with our words and phrases. We can pretend to know who is good and who is evil, who is right and who is wrong, however we are only pretending when we declare that a person or group is on God’s bad list. We cannot know the mind of God concerning the condemnation of people like and unlike us much as we say we can.
We do like to have enemies and adversaries. It gives us a focus, a center for our passion, belief, and action. In every discussion, argument, and fight there is someone on every side who can call down the wrath of God on those with whom they disagree. The psalmist reminds us, that God blesses and welcomes those, “who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors.”
June 11, 2018
LCM
Monday, February 16, 2015
Psalm Meditation 766
First Sunday in Lent
February 22, 2015
Psalm 15
1 O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;
3 who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
5 who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.
(NRSV)
In the days before psychology we could judge ourselves and others by our actions rather than our motives. It was possible to walk blamelessly when the standard was what we did. There was not a lot of soul searching and hand wringing about why we did what we did, the concern was for doing the right thing. In that mindset it is possible to walk blamelessly, do what is right and speak the truth from our hearts.
Once we add the motive, we find trouble. We second guess ourselves, wondering, not only if we are doing the right thing we wonder if we are doing it for the right reason. We judge others, knowing that our people are doing things for the right reasons and that those people are acting out of selfish motives. We spend so much time and effort working out our motivation we end up doing nothing. No matter what our actions, we can question our own motives or listen to those willing to do it for us.
Maybe we can give ourselves a break this week, today. If we spend less time fretting over our own motives and more time on doing something that points to God we can look back at the end of week or the end or the day and know that God has been served, maybe even glorified by our actions. As we act more than fret we will have less energy to question the motives of others as well. Our motives will always be mixed: actions that point to God will point to God no matter why we do them.
February 16, 2015
LCM
First Sunday in Lent
February 22, 2015
Psalm 15
1 O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;
3 who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
5 who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.
(NRSV)
In the days before psychology we could judge ourselves and others by our actions rather than our motives. It was possible to walk blamelessly when the standard was what we did. There was not a lot of soul searching and hand wringing about why we did what we did, the concern was for doing the right thing. In that mindset it is possible to walk blamelessly, do what is right and speak the truth from our hearts.
Once we add the motive, we find trouble. We second guess ourselves, wondering, not only if we are doing the right thing we wonder if we are doing it for the right reason. We judge others, knowing that our people are doing things for the right reasons and that those people are acting out of selfish motives. We spend so much time and effort working out our motivation we end up doing nothing. No matter what our actions, we can question our own motives or listen to those willing to do it for us.
Maybe we can give ourselves a break this week, today. If we spend less time fretting over our own motives and more time on doing something that points to God we can look back at the end of week or the end or the day and know that God has been served, maybe even glorified by our actions. As we act more than fret we will have less energy to question the motives of others as well. Our motives will always be mixed: actions that point to God will point to God no matter why we do them.
February 16, 2015
LCM
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