Showing posts with label Psalm 74. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 74. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2026
Psalm Meditation 1350
¶Fifth Sunday of Easter
¶May 3, 2026
¶Psalm 74
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2074&version=NRSVUE
¶One of the most effective ways to demoralize a nation is to destroy their religious buildings and monuments, especially if there is a single state religion. Barring that, it is important to influence the strength of one of the larger religious groups to become the most powerful in the nation. Through political influence and media concentration on that one group, it begins to seem obvious that this is the religion that controls the nation. Once established, that religion becomes a means to destabilize the national order.
¶Israel already had their national faith, so adversaries had only to get to wreak havoc with those monuments and buildings to humiliate the whole nation. Destroying the Temple from the outside in, was a form of intimidation by letting the people know that God’s inability to protect the dwelling place of God, meant that God could not protect the people any better. While it has often been a weapon of war, the people of Israel could not be as easily cowed as other peoples.
¶Maybe the reason God commanded that there be no graven images for this chosen people was to keep faith in peoples’ hearts rather than in buildings, monuments, and images. In the midst of bemoaning the destruction of the Temple, the psalmist lifts up great deeds that God has done for and around the people. It is the creative activity of God in all of creation that is the real Temple, the real assurance of the presence of God in all things, all times, and all places no matter what else happens to those who call on the name of the LORD.
¶April 27, 2026
¶LCM
Monday, May 15, 2023
Psalm Meditation 1196
¶Seventh Sunday of Easter
¶May 21, 2023
¶Psalm 74
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+74&version=NRSVUE
(NRSV)
¶We like to believe that we want what God wants, or more accurately, that God wants what we want. When we feel oppressed, or even slightly put upon by others, we want to know that God is there to deliver us from that pressure. God has to be on our side, because that is how this is supposed to work. If we do all the right things God does what we want. If we mess up sometimes, God forgives us and still does what we want. Maybe sometimes we deserve to be punished for crossing the line too far, but after a suitable time of punishment God forgives us and goes back to doing what we want.
¶So what if, instead of God doing what we want, we discover that God wants us to be more like God? What if God wants us to love even the people who hate us, or worse, are totally indifferent to us? Our resistance to violence becomes non-violence, our desire for justice goes beyond a concern for ourselves and those like us, our wants and desires take the wants and desires of others into consideration. If we were to strive to be in the constant process of making and remaking ourselves in the image of God, we could and would change the world.
¶It is tempting to see these psalms as permission to expect God to meet human violence with even greater and far more destructive violence. We relish the idea of those who have hurt us being more deeply and permanently scarred by God in retaliation for our injuries. It may be that the people we call our enemies also await the punishment that God will inflict on us for our years of hatred or indifference toward them. Sometimes psalms and other Scriptures can teach how not to behave. We can use these psalms to gauge how far we have come and how much farther we need to go to be the people God calls us to be.
¶May 15, 2023
¶LCM
Monday, January 3, 2022
Psalm Meditation 1125 ¶First Sunday After the Epiphany ¶January 10, 2022 ¶Psalm
74 1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against
the sheep of your pasture? 2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long
ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion,
where you came to dwell. 3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy
has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. 4 Your foes have roared within your
holy place; they set up their emblems there. 5 At the upper entrance they
hacked the wooden trellis with axes 6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they
smashed all its carved work. 7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated
the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground. 8 They said to
themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of
God in the land. 9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any
prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long. 10 How long, O God, is
the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? 11 Why do you hold
back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom? 12 Yet God my King is
from of old, working salvation in the earth. 13 You divided the sea by your
might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters. 14 You crushed the
heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and
the sun. 17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and
winter. 18 Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people
reviles your name. 19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild
animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever. 20 Have regard for you
covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise
your name. 22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff
at you all day long. 23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of
your adversaries that goes up continually. (NRSV) ¶It is a weapon of war to
destroy all of the religious symbols of a conquered land. It is a way to
demoralize the people, signifying that the victors have not only overcome the
people, they have also destroyed all hope of divine intervention. If we are of
the mind that the symbols and buildings are conduits of the divine to the earth,
the plan is effective. We are cut off from any contact with those who can
intervene for us if only we are able to let them know of our need. ¶The psalmist
is devastated that buildings and symbols have been damaged and destroyed. The
psalmist is, at the same time, aware that YHWH is present beyond buildings and
symbols, and has been active in the lives of people before a place of worship
was built, and before people were aware of the presence of God. The psalmist
reminds us of all the ways YHWH has shown power and presence in a variety of
ways and places. Because of that powerful presence the psalmist calls on God to
remember this chosen people in their hour of need. ¶When we find ourselves bent
and broken by the battles that rage within us and outside of us, we do well to
remember that God is with us. We do not need buildings and symbols to assure us
that we are not alone. We have a relationship with God that is deeper than any
building or symbol can reach. ¶January 3, 2022 ¶LCM
Monday, September 11, 2017
Psalm Meditation 900
Proper 19
September 17, 2017
Psalm 74
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
4 Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
(NRSV)
When we hit certain rough patches in our lives it feels as if the initial trauma will last forever. The searing grief and pain burn holes in our hearts and lives and we are sure that we will never feel anything but this pain for the rest of our lives. In those first few days we join the psalmist in crying out, “O God, why do you cast us off forever?” Some people curl up into their grief and never return. Most of us lift our heads, open our hearts and our eyes and we see that we are not alone, we are not abandoned.
Yes, we ache for the rest of our lives. In varying shades of grief, we are dimmed but not extinguished. In some ways we are able to use our own grief in order to touch the grief of others in ways that heal each of us. From our depths we are touched by the salvation that God carries into every situation and into every encounter. We are not set free from our burden, we are salved, healed in a way that redistributes the woundedness into a new kind of wholeness.
While it feels as if we are abandoned by God and others in times of trauma and grief, that is not the case. God is with us in every time and place. God knows, as we know, that some wounds are better left untouched in the early stages. And some scars are left numb initially. As touch becomes appropriate, and as time provides renewed sensation we are able to receive the healing touch of God, and we, “the poor and needy praise your name.”
September 11, 2017
LCM
Proper 19
September 17, 2017
Psalm 74
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
4 Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
(NRSV)
When we hit certain rough patches in our lives it feels as if the initial trauma will last forever. The searing grief and pain burn holes in our hearts and lives and we are sure that we will never feel anything but this pain for the rest of our lives. In those first few days we join the psalmist in crying out, “O God, why do you cast us off forever?” Some people curl up into their grief and never return. Most of us lift our heads, open our hearts and our eyes and we see that we are not alone, we are not abandoned.
Yes, we ache for the rest of our lives. In varying shades of grief, we are dimmed but not extinguished. In some ways we are able to use our own grief in order to touch the grief of others in ways that heal each of us. From our depths we are touched by the salvation that God carries into every situation and into every encounter. We are not set free from our burden, we are salved, healed in a way that redistributes the woundedness into a new kind of wholeness.
While it feels as if we are abandoned by God and others in times of trauma and grief, that is not the case. God is with us in every time and place. God knows, as we know, that some wounds are better left untouched in the early stages. And some scars are left numb initially. As touch becomes appropriate, and as time provides renewed sensation we are able to receive the healing touch of God, and we, “the poor and needy praise your name.”
September 11, 2017
LCM
Monday, March 28, 2016
Psalm Meditation 824
Second Sunday of Easter
April 3, 2016
Psalm 74
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
4 Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
(NRSV)
In the midst of devastation and conquest, in which the psalmist describes the overthrow of the government and the destruction of the Temple, there rises the reminder that God has a long history with the people that cannot be discounted. Crying out for God to step in and fix this problem, the psalmist is brought up short with the reminder that this is not the first time the people has been in trouble, the first time a battle or war has not gone their way. The psalmist continues to hope that God will fix this situation and that hope is given credence by remembering God’s history with the people.
Certainly the God who created the earth and all that is in it, who subdued the wild creatures of the chaotic seas, can deliver this chosen people safe from a human enemy. ‘And in the event another incentive is needed, this human enemy is also making fun of you, God. If you won’t stop them for our sakes, do it for your own.’ It is a human tendency to believe that our God has the same temperament as we; that God would be offended by the scoffing and reviling of those who have conquered God’s people.
When we begin to feel defeated by all that rises against us we too can remember that we have a long history with the God of all creation. That long history is made up of God acting in God’s good time, rather than according to our time schedule. Problems arise for us when we are more intent on God’s timing than on God’s acting. While we get impatient for God to take some action, God is waiting for the opportune time in which to act. The important part to remember is that God is with us, has been for a long time and is likely to be for a long time yet.
March 28, 2016
LCM
Second Sunday of Easter
April 3, 2016
Psalm 74
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
4 Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
(NRSV)
In the midst of devastation and conquest, in which the psalmist describes the overthrow of the government and the destruction of the Temple, there rises the reminder that God has a long history with the people that cannot be discounted. Crying out for God to step in and fix this problem, the psalmist is brought up short with the reminder that this is not the first time the people has been in trouble, the first time a battle or war has not gone their way. The psalmist continues to hope that God will fix this situation and that hope is given credence by remembering God’s history with the people.
Certainly the God who created the earth and all that is in it, who subdued the wild creatures of the chaotic seas, can deliver this chosen people safe from a human enemy. ‘And in the event another incentive is needed, this human enemy is also making fun of you, God. If you won’t stop them for our sakes, do it for your own.’ It is a human tendency to believe that our God has the same temperament as we; that God would be offended by the scoffing and reviling of those who have conquered God’s people.
When we begin to feel defeated by all that rises against us we too can remember that we have a long history with the God of all creation. That long history is made up of God acting in God’s good time, rather than according to our time schedule. Problems arise for us when we are more intent on God’s timing than on God’s acting. While we get impatient for God to take some action, God is waiting for the opportune time in which to act. The important part to remember is that God is with us, has been for a long time and is likely to be for a long time yet.
March 28, 2016
LCM
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