Psalm Meditation 1328 ¶First Sunday of Advent ¶November 30, 2025 ¶Psalm 56 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2056&version=NRSVUE ¶When a teenager is going through the drama of being that age, we have a tendency to laugh or smile at the depths of their feelings. ‘If they only knew what was coming in adulthood, they would not be so broken up about this.’ What we forget is that they don’t know what is coming, just like we didn’t know in our teen lives. They take it hard because it is the worst thing, or series of things that has ever happened to them. We, as adults, would brush this kind of pain off as nearly inconsequential, instead of remembering back to our own days of teen drama. ¶When we go through our own drama, there will likely be someone who has been through worse. Some will tell us about it, some will empathize with us, even though their own drama would break us. When the psalmist is being oppressed by foes on every side, and in every moment, his suffering would put ours to shame. At the same time, this psalm is shared with us to remind us that no matter the depth of our pain and suffering God is present with us. God is with us whenever we feel oppressed and distressed by anything going on in our lives whether it be teenage angst or the horrors of battle. ¶It is easy to take the suffering of others lightly, especially when it is something we have endured, gotten through, and moved on from in our own lives. It is easy, however it is not faithful. People of faith are encouraged to lift up the downtrodden whether they are suffering a first or a final clash with foes from the outside or the inside. The psalmist reminds us to be grateful for the deliverance we have received and to help others endure their trials. ¶November 25, 2025 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1178 ¶Second Sunday after the Epiphany ¶January 15, 2023 ¶Psalm 56 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+56&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶When we are the object of the animosity of a person group of powerful people, that is all we can feel. It is a constant barrage of pressure and attacks on us that flood every one of our senses. There may be people around us, supporting us, loving and caring for us, but we have no room to let them in. It is devastating and draining. Even when there is no active attack, we feel the pressure that has been exerted on us. It feels as if there is no relief in sight, and we will be crushed under the weight of those who are out to get us. ¶The psalmist wants us to remember to turn to God in those times. If we can, when we can, we find ourselves able to lift our heads enough to see that we are not alone. If no one else is present, we can feel the presence of God. If others are present, we can begin to feel their support as well. With the support we feel we can move from despair to anger. The anger will move us to call on God to destroy our adversaries, leaving no trace of their existence. From anger we move to a more merciful place and a deeper trust in the ways of God. ¶Rising above anger and resentment is not an easy or instant process. As we rediscover the grace and mercy of God, we discover a deeper peace in every part of life. Yes, people will continue to set themselves against us, with or without justification. In God we will find the wherewithal to face those challenges and continue to “walk before God in the light of life.” ¶January 9, 2023 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1017
Third Sunday of Advent
December 15, 2019

Psalm 56
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me; all day long foes oppress me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me. O Most High,
3 when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps. As they hoped to have my life,
7 so repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will retreat in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?
12 My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.
(NRSV)

Most of my enemies are not people. My actual enemies are ideas. Therefore, the people I count as enemies, opponents, and adversaries are not really the enemy. If either I or they have a change of heart I can just as easily count those same people among my compatriots. With the exception of leading voices I don’t know who my enemies are by name and I am sure they do not know mine. Yet we count ourselves as enemies.

There are people we choose as enemies, people we decide to oppose at every turn for reasons that seem good at the time. If those folks have made a name for themselves in our area of interest and influence, we can oppose them face to face. Even then we are inclined to send others in to do the actual battle while we call the shots. If we get too close we may discover that there is something there worth getting to know, love, and appreciate. Chosen enemies have as much to do with who we are as who they are.

The psalmist states that no matter what, we can turn to God. Are we feeling persecuted? We can turn to God. Are we feeling ignored? We can turn to God. Are we eaten up by grief? We can turn to God. “My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.”


December 9, 2019
LCM

Psalm Meditation 846
Proper 18
September 4, 2016

Psalm 56
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me; all day long foes oppress me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me. O Most High,
3 when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps. As they hoped to have my life,
7 so repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will retreat in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?
12 My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.
(NRSV)

There are a variety of ways of seeing God at work in our lives. God has been seen as a distant personality, the ‘unmoved mover’ who set the world in motion and stepped back to watch it all unfold mechanical precision. God is not seen as either for or against us; God is simply out there somewhere watching the cogs of creation mesh together as they were created to do.

God has also been seen as very hands on; fighting our battles for us and actively participating in the day to day goings on of the world. We call on God to fix or change something, and if we have been good enough it happens. God acts on behalf of those who toe the line, follow the rules and behave themselves.

And God has been our buddy, who tags along and helps us through the day by cheering us on in the good times and standing with us for moral support in the bad times. In some cases, this buddy idea gets taken to an extreme in which God supports us and encourages us to do whatever we think is the best course of action no matter what.

I am sure that each of these concepts has a bit of truth in it. There are other ways of seeing God at work in our lives that don’t come immediately to mind. As we find ourselves behaving differently around various groups of people, God is seen by each of us in way that fits who we are at the time.

“This I know, that God is for me.” This one sentence from the psalm speaks volumes. No matter how we see God, how we behave in the presence of God; God is for us. God wants us to be the very best we can be, whether we are close to or far from that goal.

August 29, 2016
LCM

Psalm Meditation 716
First Sunday in Lent
March 9, 2014

Psalm 56
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me; all day long foes oppress me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me.
O Most High,
3 when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps. As they hoped to have my life,
7 so repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will retreat in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?
12 My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.
(NRSV)

After a long, draining day it is good to have a place to be coddled and cared for, a place of refuge and renewal. Some of us are lucky enough to find that in a person to whom we go home on a regular basis. For others of us, we have a trusted friend to whom we can bare our hearts and share our hurts and hopes. For any and all of us, God is available to give us comfort in the face of all that makes us feel, helpless, hopeless and worthless.

Whether our enemies are the flesh and blood kind who can do physical damage to us, or the psychic, spiritual kind who can do just as much damage without leaving a mark, God is present to offer us a reprieve from the wounds. That God is present doesn’t mean that we will suddenly be free from our wounds. It is up to us to receive the comfort and healing God offers to us. God is not one to use force, to thrust power or presence upon us. God waits for us to open ourselves to receive as we are ready and able.

The presence of God does not take away our wounds so much as offer us comfort in the face of our woundedness. As a parent who kisses a skinned knee or holds a child against that first heartbreak, God is with us in all the calamitous places of our lives to offer us companionship in the face of each and all of our wounds. In the presence of God we are delivered from facing the trampling and lurking of our enemies on our own.

March 3, 2014

Psalm Meditation 658
Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 27, 2013

Psalm 56
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me; all day long foes oppress me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many fight against me. O Most High,
3 when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps. As they hoped to have my life,
7 so repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will retreat in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?
12 My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.
(NRSV)

We like to trust our memories as being accurate, especially as we remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard about or witnessed major historical events. In a similar vein we would like to think that our memories of personal affronts are just as accurate. Research has shown that we are not as good at remembering as we would like to believe. We tend to embellish our memories and add perceptions from others to our own until what actually happened is quite different from the way we remember it happening. All this to say that God keeps track of our lives better than we do ourselves.

God keeps track of the insults we have suffered as well as the insults we have heaped on others. Our tears and the tears we have caused are in God’s record as well. These and other bits of information are at God’s fingertips at any moment. The good thing is that God rarely uses the information as a weapon against us, or others. God doesn’t keep track in order to keep score in the contest between us and them. God keeps account as a corrective to our faulty records. God calls us each to account for our own behavior. It is not a compare and contrast of personal behavior over and against that of another person or group so much as it is our personal behavior compared and contrasted to our memory and perception of that same activity.

The good thing for each of us is that God is quick to offer us credit for the good things and forgiveness for our lapses. Another excellent aspect of God’s love for us is that God doesn’t keep score, at least not the way we do. While God remembers our actions and inactions, the bad things do not cause God to push us away any more than the good things draw us closer to the heart of God. It is the nature of God to love us, pure and simple. We make our own choices as to how we react to the love God offers, however we do not act in ways that force God to love us any more or any less.

January 21, 2013