Showing posts with label Psalm 7. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 7. Show all posts
Monday, January 20, 2025
Psalm Meditation 1284
¶Third Sunday After Epiphany
¶January 26, 2025
¶Psalm 7
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%207&version=NRSVUE
(NRSVUE)
¶It is cause for great celebration when it appears that God has risen up to give our enemies their just deserts. When they suffer all manner of disasters, both of natural and human origin, we celebrate their losses. They are getting what they deserve, what we would mete out to them if it were in our power to do so. It is wonderful to see God take an active role in the revenge that we wished on our enemies and adversaries. We rejoice that God heard our prayers and rained down death and destruction on the bad people.
¶However, when disaster strikes us and those we love, we are left to wonder why this could possibly be happening to us. We are good people; just ask us. God couldn’t possibly have anything against us because we are the good and righteous people, who do all the good and righteous things, at least most of the time. And all those people who are celebrating our calamity are just perpetuating the evil we always knew they were capable of practicing. It is neither right nor fair that ‘those’ people believe we are being punished by God.
¶The psalmist had the advantage over us of believing that every nation had a deity of their own who waged war on behalf of their own people. As we take the monotheism we profess seriously we see that one God watches over each and all of us. So, perhaps God does not mete out the punishments we deserve, rather allows us to reap the consequences of our own actions. Or, as one of my mentors said, “We are not punished for our sin, so much as we are punished by our sin.” Rather than being quick to judge those who suffer as evil, we do well to pray for all who suffer and do what we can to alleviate that suffering.
¶January 20, 2025
¶LCM
Monday, June 27, 2022
Psalm Meditation 1150
¶Proper 9
¶July 3, 2022
¶Psalm 7
1 O LORD my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil and are pregnant with mischief and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness and sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
(NRSV)
¶The first image that came to me is of someone curled into a fetal position, cowering in a dark corner, waiting for someone to come and scoop them up in a protective embrace. It takes a powerful person to pull this off. Many of us feel that we are too big for anyone to be able to scoop us up and protect us. This may be why it is such a helpful image of the love and power of God in our lives. The love seeks us out, looking into every dark and scary place until we are found. The power lifts us up and carries us to safety as if we were no burden at all.
¶In times like these, we want it known that if we have ever made anyone feel as small as we do, we are very sorry and will accept any punishment that fits our actions. We never want anyone to feel badly because of anything we have said or done to make them feel that way. As we are willing to accept the punishment of God, we want all who have made us suffer, to bear the punishment they deserve for the harm they have done to us. May they be caught in the webs and traps they have laid out for others
¶Of course, God is not one to wreak vengeance on anyone. The love of God is not reserved for those who love God in return, who repent with remorse and tears. The love of God comes to each of us, no matter what. We may not be open to or willing to receive God’s love, however, God loves us just the same. So we can wish all the devastation and destruction we can ever imagine onto our enemies at the hand of God, that does not mean it will happen. As we look to God for answers to our prayers and wishes for the destruction of our enemies, God is just as likely to point us in ways that allow us to see them as brothers and sisters, loved and lovable.
¶June 27, 2022
¶LCM
Monday, December 23, 2019
Psalm Meditation 1019
First Sunday After Christmas
December 29, 2019
Psalm 7
1 O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
3 O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.
8 The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.
(NRSV)
Taking responsibility for something that goes bad is not an easy thing to do. It is easier to make ourselves into victims than it is to accept responsibility for our actions when the consequences of a series of events leads to a bad result for us. I was caught by the caveat the psalmist makes in verses 3-5, ‘if I have done any of the things of which I am accused, let the full force of retaliation come to me. I am willing to die and be consigned to hell if I am guilty.’ The psalmist begins with the admission of the possibility of personal responsibility.
Once that is settled the psalmist asks God to rise up, preside over a trial, and punish those who have done evil and mischief. Since the psalmist was not struck down mid-sentence the psalm lays out the fate of those who are unrepentantly evil. God is not one to shrug off the evils we bring on others. One of my mentors said, “We are not so much punished for our sin as we are by our sin.” Our actions have consequences and someone has to receive the promise or pay the cost for those actions. It would be fair if we could count on the perpetrator of sin and evil paying the price for any evil act. We know that it is usually an innocent person who bears the brunt of another’s evil. When someone is careless or reckless, at best, callous, at worst, behind the wheel of a vehicle someone else gets hurt or killed by the driver’s actions.
My favorite substitute teacher would not allow a student to tattle on another without first admitting what they had done to cause or complicate the situation. When confronted with the possibility of shared guilt and punishment, the tattling lessened considerably in the classes my wife, my favorite sub, taught. The psalmist models a way to pray against those we feel are out to get us. We start with the possibility that we bear some of the guilt for what is happening to us and around us. Once we get that log out of our own eye we can see clearly to ask God to judge the rest of the guilty parties as well. “I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.”
December 23, 2019
LCM
First Sunday After Christmas
December 29, 2019
Psalm 7
1 O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
3 O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.
8 The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.
(NRSV)
Taking responsibility for something that goes bad is not an easy thing to do. It is easier to make ourselves into victims than it is to accept responsibility for our actions when the consequences of a series of events leads to a bad result for us. I was caught by the caveat the psalmist makes in verses 3-5, ‘if I have done any of the things of which I am accused, let the full force of retaliation come to me. I am willing to die and be consigned to hell if I am guilty.’ The psalmist begins with the admission of the possibility of personal responsibility.
Once that is settled the psalmist asks God to rise up, preside over a trial, and punish those who have done evil and mischief. Since the psalmist was not struck down mid-sentence the psalm lays out the fate of those who are unrepentantly evil. God is not one to shrug off the evils we bring on others. One of my mentors said, “We are not so much punished for our sin as we are by our sin.” Our actions have consequences and someone has to receive the promise or pay the cost for those actions. It would be fair if we could count on the perpetrator of sin and evil paying the price for any evil act. We know that it is usually an innocent person who bears the brunt of another’s evil. When someone is careless or reckless, at best, callous, at worst, behind the wheel of a vehicle someone else gets hurt or killed by the driver’s actions.
My favorite substitute teacher would not allow a student to tattle on another without first admitting what they had done to cause or complicate the situation. When confronted with the possibility of shared guilt and punishment, the tattling lessened considerably in the classes my wife, my favorite sub, taught. The psalmist models a way to pray against those we feel are out to get us. We start with the possibility that we bear some of the guilt for what is happening to us and around us. Once we get that log out of our own eye we can see clearly to ask God to judge the rest of the guilty parties as well. “I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.”
December 23, 2019
LCM
Monday, November 26, 2018
Psalm Meditation 963
First Sunday of Advent
December 2, 2018
Psalm 7
1 O LORD my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
(NRSV)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God repaid evil with punishment immediately? Well, as long as that punishment did not include us at all. We are okay with swift retaliation against those who have done some evil against us while we appreciate God’s mercy and patience when we are involved in the evil. The difficulty is that each of us is so far from innocence whether we are able to see our guilt or not. Even though the psalmist gives God permission to dole out any deserved punishment most of us are sure that we don’t really deserve the bad things we get.
Perhaps the reason God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love is to give us plenty of time to recognize and repent of our sin. Our goal is to live out the will of God for ourselves and to draw others into that same life of faithfulness. Our methods could be seen as violence against those we want to save. Some folks believe they are doing a butterfly a favor by pulling it out of its cocoon as soon as it opens. We see ourselves as helping the process by speeding it up. It turns out that we do tremendous damage by not letting it come out at its own speed. What if our attempts to get others where we are does damage to their development?
There are evil people in the world. There are people who perform evil acts. And there are people whose actions are evil though their intention is to do good for themselves and people like them, and maybe even for those who see their actions as evil and destructive. God is willing and able to sort out actions from motives. God is willing and able to be patient with each one of us as we come to realize that our best intentions led to evil consequences and we are drawn to repentance. God is willing and able to watch over us as those who have done evil to us realize that their best intentions led to evil consequences and they are drawn to repentance
November 26, 2018
LCM
First Sunday of Advent
December 2, 2018
Psalm 7
1 O LORD my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
(NRSV)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God repaid evil with punishment immediately? Well, as long as that punishment did not include us at all. We are okay with swift retaliation against those who have done some evil against us while we appreciate God’s mercy and patience when we are involved in the evil. The difficulty is that each of us is so far from innocence whether we are able to see our guilt or not. Even though the psalmist gives God permission to dole out any deserved punishment most of us are sure that we don’t really deserve the bad things we get.
Perhaps the reason God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love is to give us plenty of time to recognize and repent of our sin. Our goal is to live out the will of God for ourselves and to draw others into that same life of faithfulness. Our methods could be seen as violence against those we want to save. Some folks believe they are doing a butterfly a favor by pulling it out of its cocoon as soon as it opens. We see ourselves as helping the process by speeding it up. It turns out that we do tremendous damage by not letting it come out at its own speed. What if our attempts to get others where we are does damage to their development?
There are evil people in the world. There are people who perform evil acts. And there are people whose actions are evil though their intention is to do good for themselves and people like them, and maybe even for those who see their actions as evil and destructive. God is willing and able to sort out actions from motives. God is willing and able to be patient with each one of us as we come to realize that our best intentions led to evil consequences and we are drawn to repentance. God is willing and able to watch over us as those who have done evil to us realize that their best intentions led to evil consequences and they are drawn to repentance
November 26, 2018
LCM
Monday, March 17, 2014
Psalm Meditation 718
Third Sunday in Lent
March 23, 2014
Psalm 7
1 O LORD my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground,
and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
(NRSV)
The desire for revenge may be one of the things that makes us human. We want those who have done wrong or evil to pay a price for their actions. The psalmist takes an important step in these verses; recognizing the possibility of personal fault. The psalmist is open to receive punishment at the hand of enemies if there is any fault on the part of the writer. It seems like a good place to start any rant against our enemies. I wonder if our various tirades about our enemies would be any different if we would begin each one with the acknowledgement of the possibility that we may have contributed to this situation, or that we might be guilty of the same kind or evil toward someone else.
To be able to confess our own failings and evil inclinations may soften the judgments we ask God to rain down on the folks who have done evil to us. If God punishes everyone who is guilty with the punishment I request for those who have done me dirty, I might want to tone down my request a bit if the same fate will fall to me for similar behavior. It may not, probably won’t, make us any less hurt and angry about the harm that has come to us in any given moment. Over the course of our lives we may find ourselves willing to put ourselves into the skins of those we perceive as evil. We may find ourselves able to see a human side to the most evil of people.
This does not mean that we will not be hurt and angered by the things that happen to us in our lives. It certainly does not mean that there is not evil in the world; both intentional and inadvertent. It does leave us open to the possibility that we are, each and all, human and in need of forgiveness and love in the face of who we are and what we do. We may also realize that the loving presence of God we crave is available even to the most vile person in our lives. While our inclination is to pray that God will physically wipe out our enemies, it seems that the inclination of God is to love us in spite of and because of who we are.
March 17, 2014
Third Sunday in Lent
March 23, 2014
Psalm 7
1 O LORD my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground,
and lay my soul in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
(NRSV)
The desire for revenge may be one of the things that makes us human. We want those who have done wrong or evil to pay a price for their actions. The psalmist takes an important step in these verses; recognizing the possibility of personal fault. The psalmist is open to receive punishment at the hand of enemies if there is any fault on the part of the writer. It seems like a good place to start any rant against our enemies. I wonder if our various tirades about our enemies would be any different if we would begin each one with the acknowledgement of the possibility that we may have contributed to this situation, or that we might be guilty of the same kind or evil toward someone else.
To be able to confess our own failings and evil inclinations may soften the judgments we ask God to rain down on the folks who have done evil to us. If God punishes everyone who is guilty with the punishment I request for those who have done me dirty, I might want to tone down my request a bit if the same fate will fall to me for similar behavior. It may not, probably won’t, make us any less hurt and angry about the harm that has come to us in any given moment. Over the course of our lives we may find ourselves willing to put ourselves into the skins of those we perceive as evil. We may find ourselves able to see a human side to the most evil of people.
This does not mean that we will not be hurt and angered by the things that happen to us in our lives. It certainly does not mean that there is not evil in the world; both intentional and inadvertent. It does leave us open to the possibility that we are, each and all, human and in need of forgiveness and love in the face of who we are and what we do. We may also realize that the loving presence of God we crave is available even to the most vile person in our lives. While our inclination is to pray that God will physically wipe out our enemies, it seems that the inclination of God is to love us in spite of and because of who we are.
March 17, 2014
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