Showing posts with label Psalm 51. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 51. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2025
Psalm Meditation 1322
¶Proper 24
¶October 19, 2025
¶Psalm 51
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2051&version=NRSVUE
¶The mystics call it a ‘dark night of the soul,’ a time in which we feel broken, and abandoned, when we don’t feel like doing anything that we usually enjoy doing. We may even feel gross, as if we are not and will never feel clean again, and are not all that concerned about it. We also have times in which we pray for God to release us from all this weight we find ourselves under. We feel as if we must have done something that has brought us to this point, and ask God to forgive us and release us from this burden we are experiencing in this time.
¶The psalmist is willing to shoulder the full blame and responsibility for this current condition. ‘It is my fault, O God, and you are the only one who can set me free from this burden of sin. And while I am asking for release from sin, may I also dare to ask for joy and gladness in my life.’ It is as if God takes some delight in watching us suffer when we are made aware of our sinfulness. We feel as if we have to be punished for all the sins that we commit so that God will begin to love us once again.
¶One of my mentors through the years said, ‘we are not punished for our sin, so much as we are punished by our sin.’ God is not out to get us, God already loves us and does not wish us any harm in body or spirit. When we are in any kind of pain God is present with us waiting to offer us the cleansing we need so that we can experience the joy that God has set our hearts and souls to long for. As we journey toward joy and fulfillment our lives serve as examples of what God offers to everyone.
¶October 13, 2025
¶LCM
Monday, October 24, 2022
Psalm Meditation 1167
¶Proper 26
¶October 30, 2022
¶Psalm 51
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+51&version=NRSVUE
(NRSV)
¶Many of us have that list of actions and inactions that have done damage to those around us. They gnaw at us for years at a time. If we are lucky we can find a way to resolve the situation and atone for our sin. We join the psalmist in asking God to forgive us and cleanse us from the feelings of guilt and shame. The plea for forgiveness becomes a regular part of our prayer life. ‘If only God could forgive me, I would be better able to seek the forgiveness of others, as well as forgive those who I feel have wronged me.’
¶Yes, God wants us to look at ourselves honestly to see where we are in need of forgiveness and redemption. God also wants us to let go of things that haunt us as if they were dreadful sins. I discover that in a lot of cases God has already offered me forgiveness and, because I feel unworthy, I have been unable to open myself to it. Confession is good for the soul as long as we can let go of our guilt in order to make room for forgiveness. And forgiveness does not remove the consequences of our actions, only the crippling guilt.
¶God has created a clean heart for each of us and is ready to put that new and right spirit within us, if we will make room for it by letting go of the broken hearts to which we cling so desperately. God wants an open and wholesome relationship with each one of us. We don’t need to clutter it up with bargains and promises, simply be in the presence of God.
¶October 24, 2022
¶LCM
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Psalm Meditation 987
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 19, 2019
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)
A friend from seminary days told me that he and his floor mates were a regular source of trouble for their residence assistant. Things seemed to happen on campus in a way that implicated this particular floor. To add to the trouble, they would alternate confession and denial as a whole. For one event, they would discreetly go to the RA one at a time and deny that they had anything to do with it. The next time they would confess one at a time, ‘I did it, all by myself, no one helped me, I bear total responsibility.’ When everyone denies responsibility, it makes solving the issue more difficult. When everyone claims sole responsibility, it becomes just as complicated. It is hard to know who is a fault and who is innocent.
The psalmist is willing to confess transgressions and sins against God and hopes to receive forgiveness for all of these sins. He psalmist is not only willing to confess personal sins there is a companion willingness to confess to being most recent in a line of sinful people. The psalmist wants to be cleansed, purified, and made whole in body and spirit. In return for this healing and restoration the psalmist pledges a willingness to teach others to live in the way that leads to the same healing and wholeness the psalmist hopes to receive. If all of this good stuff happens, all will be right with the world, including a renewed delight in sacrifice offered to God.
Like the dorm residents, some of us will confess to anything and everything, because we know that we are guilty of something that requires confession, repentance, and probably punishment of some kind. Others will find a way within themselves to justify their actions as appropriate and defensible, even in the presence of God. Most of us are an interesting mix of guilt and denial, claiming some guilt beyond our responsibility and ignoring or justifying other transgressions as having done the right thing even though everyone else made it go wrong. The important part, beyond our overdeveloped senses of guilt and innocence, is pointing ourselves and others to God as best we can.
May 14, 2019
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 19, 2019
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)
A friend from seminary days told me that he and his floor mates were a regular source of trouble for their residence assistant. Things seemed to happen on campus in a way that implicated this particular floor. To add to the trouble, they would alternate confession and denial as a whole. For one event, they would discreetly go to the RA one at a time and deny that they had anything to do with it. The next time they would confess one at a time, ‘I did it, all by myself, no one helped me, I bear total responsibility.’ When everyone denies responsibility, it makes solving the issue more difficult. When everyone claims sole responsibility, it becomes just as complicated. It is hard to know who is a fault and who is innocent.
The psalmist is willing to confess transgressions and sins against God and hopes to receive forgiveness for all of these sins. He psalmist is not only willing to confess personal sins there is a companion willingness to confess to being most recent in a line of sinful people. The psalmist wants to be cleansed, purified, and made whole in body and spirit. In return for this healing and restoration the psalmist pledges a willingness to teach others to live in the way that leads to the same healing and wholeness the psalmist hopes to receive. If all of this good stuff happens, all will be right with the world, including a renewed delight in sacrifice offered to God.
Like the dorm residents, some of us will confess to anything and everything, because we know that we are guilty of something that requires confession, repentance, and probably punishment of some kind. Others will find a way within themselves to justify their actions as appropriate and defensible, even in the presence of God. Most of us are an interesting mix of guilt and denial, claiming some guilt beyond our responsibility and ignoring or justifying other transgressions as having done the right thing even though everyone else made it go wrong. The important part, beyond our overdeveloped senses of guilt and innocence, is pointing ourselves and others to God as best we can.
May 14, 2019
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 18, 2019
Psalm Meditation 979
Third Sunday in Lent
March 24, 2019
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)
Most of us can easily list the sins of those around us; family, friends, enemies. Sin is pretty easy to spot from an objective distance. Given the opportunity to get close enough to get to know someone we don’t like makes listing that person’s sins very easy. Our psalmist here has done something different.
This psalmist has found it necessary to enumerate and confess personal sins. There is no deflecting or denying. The psalmist has come to the point at which many sins have weighed so heavily there is no rising without becoming free of this load of sin. The psalmist goes to God to lighten the burden of sin.
These days all forms of media are full of reports of people falling from grace and fame. Some are famous, while others are known only to their victims. It is still easier to name the sins of those around us than it is to name our own in a way that leads to repentance, forgiveness, and restoration. Many of us find it easier to believe the worst about those with whom we disagree, than we do in the repentance and restoration of one with whom we have no problem. The psalmist reminds us that it is most important to look to ourselves and our own sin, so that we can confess, repent, and be restored to right relationship with God and others.
March 18, 2019
LCM
Third Sunday in Lent
March 24, 2019
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)
Most of us can easily list the sins of those around us; family, friends, enemies. Sin is pretty easy to spot from an objective distance. Given the opportunity to get close enough to get to know someone we don’t like makes listing that person’s sins very easy. Our psalmist here has done something different.
This psalmist has found it necessary to enumerate and confess personal sins. There is no deflecting or denying. The psalmist has come to the point at which many sins have weighed so heavily there is no rising without becoming free of this load of sin. The psalmist goes to God to lighten the burden of sin.
These days all forms of media are full of reports of people falling from grace and fame. Some are famous, while others are known only to their victims. It is still easier to name the sins of those around us than it is to name our own in a way that leads to repentance, forgiveness, and restoration. Many of us find it easier to believe the worst about those with whom we disagree, than we do in the repentance and restoration of one with whom we have no problem. The psalmist reminds us that it is most important to look to ourselves and our own sin, so that we can confess, repent, and be restored to right relationship with God and others.
March 18, 2019
LCM
Monday, August 5, 2013
Psalm Meditation 686
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 11, 2013
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)
There is something wonderful about being clean and then putting on clean clothes or climbing into a bed with clean sheets. It is good to get into a vehicle when it is new or even to get in after it has been cleaned out and swept. Clean things are so excellent, it is amazing that anyone would fight so hard to keep from getting to that place. At some point in our lives most of us have fought someone’s urging that we get clean in some way; either our own bodies or some part of our surroundings.
If it is so wonderful to be clean, how do we let ourselves and our surroundings get in such a state? We convince ourselves that it is easier to let things slide than to clean up little at a time. Eventually, we either get used to things as they are or we step in to do the hard work of cleaning. We may even have to ask for help with the task The psalmist asks God for a thorough cleansing from sin and iniquity. A piece of paper here, a book there, a pile of mail in another corner and suddenly a desk is covered in ‘stuff’ that was important enough to save but not quite important enough to get done immediately. An unkind word here, a judgment there, a pile of looking down our noses at folks without knowing the whole story and suddenly we are covered in sin and iniquity. It all piles up and it becomes important to deal with all of these things before they overpower us.
God is more than willing to help us restore right relationships with God and others (you are on your own to get your desk clean.) The psalmist reminds us that God is not nearly as interested in appearance and rituals, important as they are, as God is interested in our hearts. During a regular cleaning routine, or an I-can’t-take-this-anymore clean, take a moment also to see to identifying and clear out some of the sin and iniquity that is piling up inside. It may make the outside cleaning go a little more smoothly. It will certainly make for a lighter spirit in the presence of God and others.
August 5, 2013
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 11, 2013
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)
There is something wonderful about being clean and then putting on clean clothes or climbing into a bed with clean sheets. It is good to get into a vehicle when it is new or even to get in after it has been cleaned out and swept. Clean things are so excellent, it is amazing that anyone would fight so hard to keep from getting to that place. At some point in our lives most of us have fought someone’s urging that we get clean in some way; either our own bodies or some part of our surroundings.
If it is so wonderful to be clean, how do we let ourselves and our surroundings get in such a state? We convince ourselves that it is easier to let things slide than to clean up little at a time. Eventually, we either get used to things as they are or we step in to do the hard work of cleaning. We may even have to ask for help with the task The psalmist asks God for a thorough cleansing from sin and iniquity. A piece of paper here, a book there, a pile of mail in another corner and suddenly a desk is covered in ‘stuff’ that was important enough to save but not quite important enough to get done immediately. An unkind word here, a judgment there, a pile of looking down our noses at folks without knowing the whole story and suddenly we are covered in sin and iniquity. It all piles up and it becomes important to deal with all of these things before they overpower us.
God is more than willing to help us restore right relationships with God and others (you are on your own to get your desk clean.) The psalmist reminds us that God is not nearly as interested in appearance and rituals, important as they are, as God is interested in our hearts. During a regular cleaning routine, or an I-can’t-take-this-anymore clean, take a moment also to see to identifying and clear out some of the sin and iniquity that is piling up inside. It may make the outside cleaning go a little more smoothly. It will certainly make for a lighter spirit in the presence of God and others.
August 5, 2013
Monday, July 30, 2012
Psalm Meditation 633
Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 5, 2012
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)
Every now and then we get caught acting as if we know better than God. We jump to a conclusion about what God would want in this situation and we begin leap frogging from one conclusion to the next until we have gotten ourselves so far removed from God that we finally notice how far we have strayed from the actual ways of God. We can actually see the process happening when others do it, especially those with whom we disagree on some major or minor point of theology or practice. When we do it, we get so intent on what we are doing that we don’t look up to see whether or not God is anywhere near where we have decided God belongs.
When we do look up, assuming we will see God smiling down on us for having anticipated the next several divine moves, we discover that we are alone. When we discover where God has actually gone, and how far it is from where we expected, we crawl over to receive our punishment for wandering away from the path of God. In most cases God scoops us up into an embrace full of warmth and laughter, grateful for our attempt and entertained by our efforts to play God. Being in the presence of God restores us and renews the joy in our lives.
We do our best to pass on the knowledge and wisdom we have received by wandering off and being welcomed back into the fold of God. As we are able to mirror to others the patience we received from God we find that we are better able to return with them to the presence of God. At the same time we are teaching we find ourselves learning from those who have gone before us as well as from those who walk and work with us. In the presence of God we sing, rejoice and praise along with all those with whom we share the relationship of the deep and abiding love of God.
July 30, 2012
Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 5, 2012
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)
Every now and then we get caught acting as if we know better than God. We jump to a conclusion about what God would want in this situation and we begin leap frogging from one conclusion to the next until we have gotten ourselves so far removed from God that we finally notice how far we have strayed from the actual ways of God. We can actually see the process happening when others do it, especially those with whom we disagree on some major or minor point of theology or practice. When we do it, we get so intent on what we are doing that we don’t look up to see whether or not God is anywhere near where we have decided God belongs.
When we do look up, assuming we will see God smiling down on us for having anticipated the next several divine moves, we discover that we are alone. When we discover where God has actually gone, and how far it is from where we expected, we crawl over to receive our punishment for wandering away from the path of God. In most cases God scoops us up into an embrace full of warmth and laughter, grateful for our attempt and entertained by our efforts to play God. Being in the presence of God restores us and renews the joy in our lives.
We do our best to pass on the knowledge and wisdom we have received by wandering off and being welcomed back into the fold of God. As we are able to mirror to others the patience we received from God we find that we are better able to return with them to the presence of God. At the same time we are teaching we find ourselves learning from those who have gone before us as well as from those who walk and work with us. In the presence of God we sing, rejoice and praise along with all those with whom we share the relationship of the deep and abiding love of God.
July 30, 2012
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