Showing posts with label Psalm 52. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 52. Show all posts
Monday, April 13, 2026
Psalm Meditation 1348
¶Third Sunday of Easter
¶April 19, 2026
¶Psalm 52
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2052&version=NRSVUE
¶I imagine that each of us knows or knows of someone who will lie, cheat, and steal, without hesitation to get what they want. And they will bluster and blame everyone except themselves when things don’t go to their selfish, destructive, treacherous plan. They will throw friends and enemies alike to the wolves if it suits their purpose and gets them what they want out of a situation. The psalmist knows such a person and has been hurt by their conniving ways and destructive behavior.
¶The psalmist continues by expressing the hope that God will break down those who find more comfort in wealth than in the presence of God. While it is God’s will that each of us find our way to the loving, steadfast presence of God, there are those who, in this life, will meet a fate that seems to be just punishment for the life they have led, and the destruction they have brought to all around them. For some that will mean dying and being forgotten almost immediately. For others it will mean dying and being remembered only for the damage and evil they have done.
¶According to the psalmist, it is better to be rooted in the presence of God where steadfast love and faithfulness prevail, than to be out for ourselves alone. In the presence of God we find a community that loves one another, and bears each other’s burdens making them seem lighter and easier to deal with. In God’s presence we find it possible to offer welcome even to those whose actions have hurt us.
¶April 13, 2026
¶LCM
Monday, May 29, 2023
Psalm Meditation 1198
¶Trinity Sunday
¶June 4, 2023
¶Psalm 52 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+52&version=NRSVUE
(NRSV)
¶The chances are good that this psalm is addressed to people in positions of power. There may be a person like this in our circle of friends and acquaintances, however in the whole scope of human history their influence is extremely small. People in power who lie, cheat, and act treacherously can change the course of history with a well chosen word in the ear of one already primed to listen and believe. These are the people to whom this psalm issues a warning.
¶This psalm does not excuse this kind of behavior on the smaller scale of a friend group, it simply does not deal with dishonesty and treachery at that level. The warning stands for any who get giddy tearing people apart through lies, innuendo, and treachery. The psalmist warns that these folks will be found out, and the personal damage will be catastrophic. While it may give one a feeling of power to destroy a person or group from the inside, the price that is paid will hardly be worth the effort.
¶While a psalm may not address us or a situation in which we find ourselves directly, we can take a lesson from it. This psalm addresses lying etc. on a national political scale. While we may never have that kind of influence on a national leader, we can be aware that no good comes from treachery. We are much better off trusting in the steadfast love of God for joy and meaning in our lives. By trusting in steadfast love we can be resilient in the face of all the challenges that will come to us from within and without.
¶May 29, 2023
¶LCM
Monday, June 24, 2019
Psalm Meditation 993
Proper 8
June 30, 2019
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 “See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!”
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)
It is easy to make this about a politician, supervisor, or boss that makes us crazy. And it may well include each of the folks we picture as we read this. It is just as likely about us. If we have led someone to believe something that is more to our advantage than to theirs, we are among those the psalmist writes about. I have planned which public office holders I would have in mind as I wrote this, and then… and then I read it this morning and discovered it is about us, about me.
It is so easy to think and write about ‘those’ people. There is not much that I can do about them. I can only stand back and wait for God to break them down, snatch them from their dwellings, and uproot them from the land of the living. I can change me. I can learn that, just because I have the power to do something, doesn’t mean it is of God. If I have any part in holding someone else down; if I have any part in spreading lies, even the ones I believe, I am guilty of loving evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth.
Mercifully, once we realize that a psalm like this can include us among the evil doers, rather than among the righteous, we can turn to God in repentance. As we move toward God we will discover that we have taken refuge in God rather than taking refuge in the ‘stuff’ on which we have depended for our safety and security. As our refuge in God becomes more deeply established we will find it less important to boast and lie for the sake of ‘stuff,’ and look more to a deepening sense of the presence of God in all we are and do.
June 24, 2019
LCM
Proper 8
June 30, 2019
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 “See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!”
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)
It is easy to make this about a politician, supervisor, or boss that makes us crazy. And it may well include each of the folks we picture as we read this. It is just as likely about us. If we have led someone to believe something that is more to our advantage than to theirs, we are among those the psalmist writes about. I have planned which public office holders I would have in mind as I wrote this, and then… and then I read it this morning and discovered it is about us, about me.
It is so easy to think and write about ‘those’ people. There is not much that I can do about them. I can only stand back and wait for God to break them down, snatch them from their dwellings, and uproot them from the land of the living. I can change me. I can learn that, just because I have the power to do something, doesn’t mean it is of God. If I have any part in holding someone else down; if I have any part in spreading lies, even the ones I believe, I am guilty of loving evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth.
Mercifully, once we realize that a psalm like this can include us among the evil doers, rather than among the righteous, we can turn to God in repentance. As we move toward God we will discover that we have taken refuge in God rather than taking refuge in the ‘stuff’ on which we have depended for our safety and security. As our refuge in God becomes more deeply established we will find it less important to boast and lie for the sake of ‘stuff,’ and look more to a deepening sense of the presence of God in all we are and do.
June 24, 2019
LCM
Monday, June 6, 2016
Psalm Meditation 834
Proper 5
June 12, 2016
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 “See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!”
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)
The people who begin businesses usually do so to provide a service for the people around them. If they provide a service that a lot of people want they end up making a lot of money doing it. With good business sense or good advice the service grows beyond the first location to become a multiple branch provider. For the original owner operator the business is about service more than money. As that owner retires or gets bought out the vision slowly shifts from product and service to profit and loss.
The founder of the company is interested in making money, however the top priority is providing the service that is the heart of the business. At some point investors place making money as the top priority with the service as a secondary concern. What started as a service has become a product and the interest of the higher ups shifts from providing a welcome service to accumulating maximum profits for the shareholders. The product begins to suffer and people move on to the next thing as the profiteers squabble over the business.
These are the folks the psalmist reminds us not to be. If we ever get to the point at which our desire for wealth is stronger than our desire for God, it is time to reconsider our priorities. While the psalm mentions those for whom wealth is a priority, there are other concerns as well. Anyone whose top priority is not God has some reconsidering to do. Trusting in the steadfast love of God is harder than it looks until we form the habit. Once it becomes a habit we can give God thanks in all times and places and situations.
June 6, 2016
LCM
Proper 5
June 12, 2016
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 “See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!”
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)
The people who begin businesses usually do so to provide a service for the people around them. If they provide a service that a lot of people want they end up making a lot of money doing it. With good business sense or good advice the service grows beyond the first location to become a multiple branch provider. For the original owner operator the business is about service more than money. As that owner retires or gets bought out the vision slowly shifts from product and service to profit and loss.
The founder of the company is interested in making money, however the top priority is providing the service that is the heart of the business. At some point investors place making money as the top priority with the service as a secondary concern. What started as a service has become a product and the interest of the higher ups shifts from providing a welcome service to accumulating maximum profits for the shareholders. The product begins to suffer and people move on to the next thing as the profiteers squabble over the business.
These are the folks the psalmist reminds us not to be. If we ever get to the point at which our desire for wealth is stronger than our desire for God, it is time to reconsider our priorities. While the psalm mentions those for whom wealth is a priority, there are other concerns as well. Anyone whose top priority is not God has some reconsidering to do. Trusting in the steadfast love of God is harder than it looks until we form the habit. Once it becomes a habit we can give God thanks in all times and places and situations.
June 6, 2016
LCM
Monday, September 16, 2013
Psalm Meditation 692
Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 22, 2013
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 “See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!”
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)
We are quick to attach evil motives to those who disagree with us, especially when those folks mount violent attacks against us. While it is possible that their entire intent is evil, it is also possible that their intent is good, positive and honorable. Their actions may be violent and destructive even as they look to a positive and peaceful outcome. The folks who participated in the Crusades had the laudable goal of winning back the Holy Land for the glory of Christ. The part about totally discounting the faith and even humanity of the folks who lived there continues to give Christians a bad reputation in parts of the world.
Some of the evils we have experienced in recent years have been a response to the actions of Christians during the Crusades. That does not make either side good or right in the actions carried out, it simply gives a window into the thought processes of the folks who are seen by others as evil. I do believe that there is evil in the world and that simply because we have a way to justify our actions does not mean that those actions are not seen as evil by someone else. At some point in our lives we have railed against the unfairness of our parents as they asked or demanded a certain course of action. While we saw them as terrible parents they saw themselves as people acting out of love in the best interest of us, their children.
What is evil to me is justifiable and even laudable to you. At times, it is a matter of whether we are giving or receiving an action that defines it as evil. Yes, there is evil. Yes, there are evil people. Yes, sometimes it is ‘them’ who do the evil deeds, Yes, sometimes it is ‘us’ who do the evil. As our hearts and lives are more finely tuned to God we are confronted by the evils we have perpetrated on others. We can find ways to justify our actions or we can find ways to repent and move forward in our relationship with God and with the people with whom we live and work.
September 16, 2013
Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 22, 2013
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 “See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!”
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)
We are quick to attach evil motives to those who disagree with us, especially when those folks mount violent attacks against us. While it is possible that their entire intent is evil, it is also possible that their intent is good, positive and honorable. Their actions may be violent and destructive even as they look to a positive and peaceful outcome. The folks who participated in the Crusades had the laudable goal of winning back the Holy Land for the glory of Christ. The part about totally discounting the faith and even humanity of the folks who lived there continues to give Christians a bad reputation in parts of the world.
Some of the evils we have experienced in recent years have been a response to the actions of Christians during the Crusades. That does not make either side good or right in the actions carried out, it simply gives a window into the thought processes of the folks who are seen by others as evil. I do believe that there is evil in the world and that simply because we have a way to justify our actions does not mean that those actions are not seen as evil by someone else. At some point in our lives we have railed against the unfairness of our parents as they asked or demanded a certain course of action. While we saw them as terrible parents they saw themselves as people acting out of love in the best interest of us, their children.
What is evil to me is justifiable and even laudable to you. At times, it is a matter of whether we are giving or receiving an action that defines it as evil. Yes, there is evil. Yes, there are evil people. Yes, sometimes it is ‘them’ who do the evil deeds, Yes, sometimes it is ‘us’ who do the evil. As our hearts and lives are more finely tuned to God we are confronted by the evils we have perpetrated on others. We can find ways to justify our actions or we can find ways to repent and move forward in our relationship with God and with the people with whom we live and work.
September 16, 2013
Monday, September 3, 2012
Psalm Meditation 638
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 9, 2012
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. (Selah)
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 "See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!"
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)
I have heard folks say, and have said it myself, “If you want to know what your priorities are, see where you spend most of your money.” Whether we like it or not, we tend to put our money toward what we think is important in our lives. Then I see verse 7 of this psalm, and realize that judging our priorities by the money we invest is placing money as a priority over God. When we can discover our priorities by how we spend our money, we have put wealth and riches in the center of our lives.
That doesn’t mean we get rid of our money and other wealth assets. It does mean we have to make a way in our lives to put God at the center of our lives. We have to find a way to determine priorities and worth that are not centered in abundant riches and wealth. For the folks of the psalmist’s day, the belief was that there was a set amount of wealth available, so the only way anyone could get rich was by taking wealth from others. While we have expanded our concept of the limits of wealth, there is a point at which we question whether a person is worth what they receive and how much help those riches could offer if given to other causes.
In all of this, it still comes down to money. How do we determine a person’s worth in the context of God and our relationship with God? It is a problem in a society that likes to know where we rate in relation to those around us. In the eyes of God we are each seen as having infinite worth. In the eyes of God there is no ranking system of faithfulness, righteousness or other categories of worth. In the eyes of God we are each unique and incomparable.
To be in the world we will likely always have a rating and ranking system in which we will be placed by ourselves and others. To be citizen’s of heaven we recognize that we are each of infinite worth and that God loves each of us as if we were the only one. In our relations with each other, as children of God we no longer use the rating systems of the world as we see each other through the eyes of God.
September 3, 2012
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 9, 2012
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. (Selah)
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 "See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!"
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)
I have heard folks say, and have said it myself, “If you want to know what your priorities are, see where you spend most of your money.” Whether we like it or not, we tend to put our money toward what we think is important in our lives. Then I see verse 7 of this psalm, and realize that judging our priorities by the money we invest is placing money as a priority over God. When we can discover our priorities by how we spend our money, we have put wealth and riches in the center of our lives.
That doesn’t mean we get rid of our money and other wealth assets. It does mean we have to make a way in our lives to put God at the center of our lives. We have to find a way to determine priorities and worth that are not centered in abundant riches and wealth. For the folks of the psalmist’s day, the belief was that there was a set amount of wealth available, so the only way anyone could get rich was by taking wealth from others. While we have expanded our concept of the limits of wealth, there is a point at which we question whether a person is worth what they receive and how much help those riches could offer if given to other causes.
In all of this, it still comes down to money. How do we determine a person’s worth in the context of God and our relationship with God? It is a problem in a society that likes to know where we rate in relation to those around us. In the eyes of God we are each seen as having infinite worth. In the eyes of God there is no ranking system of faithfulness, righteousness or other categories of worth. In the eyes of God we are each unique and incomparable.
To be in the world we will likely always have a rating and ranking system in which we will be placed by ourselves and others. To be citizen’s of heaven we recognize that we are each of infinite worth and that God loves each of us as if we were the only one. In our relations with each other, as children of God we no longer use the rating systems of the world as we see each other through the eyes of God.
September 3, 2012
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