Showing posts with label Psalm 95. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 95. Show all posts
Monday, February 12, 2024
Psalm Meditation 1235
¶First Sunday in Lent
¶February 18, 2024
¶Psalm 95
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+95&version=NRSVUE
(NRSV)
¶There are folks who believe, the main reason we should behave ourselves is to avoid being punished in some way. We are honest so we don’t get caught in our lies, we are nice to people so God doesn’t get us, we worship God so we don’t burn in hell, and so on. These same folks find ways to convince themselves that there are places that are off limits to God, and that God will ignore/forgive our actions if we ask nicely, and maybe promise to never do it again, at least until next time.
¶The psalmist speaks to this group of people here. The reason to sing, give thanks, and worship is so that we don’t end up like the folks in the exodus. Those people were nasty to God, always complaining, and when justifiable punishment came went crying to God for help and deliverance. They had already figured out that God was a pretty soft touch who loved them enough to take them back as long as they asked for forgiveness. These folks never quite grasp that God is good to them by choice rather than because they said or did the right things.
¶We still find ourselves making deals with God when things go awry for us. ‘If you do this for me, I will do this list of things that you asked me to do anyway.’ And God responds in a way that reminds us that we are loved because of who God is more than because we go through all the right motions and say all the right words. We may or may not be delivered from our particular stress and trial, however we can rest assured that God is with us as a loving presence.
¶February 12, 2024
¶LCM lcmanifold@gmail.com
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Monday, June 14, 2021
Psalm Meditation 1096
Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 20, 2021
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”
(NRSV)
When was the last time you asked to speak to a manager so that you could compliment an employee who did good work for you? We are very quick to complain, sometimes through the proper channels, and sometimes to neighbors and friends who can’t really do anything about it. They may agree that that place is the worst and no one ever gets good service there. They may tell you that they have had nothing but good experiences with that place. None of that conversation changes the way the establishment works, but it does make the bad experience a shared experience.
The psalmist invites us to join in thanksgiving to God. There are so many reasons to join the song and celebration of God’s activity with us. God has created all that we experience around us, the good, the bad, the safe, the dangerous, and everything in between. With all that in mind, this would be a great time to thank God for all the wonders we see. And in case we aren’t feeling up to being grateful, remember our ancestors’ experience at Meribah and Massah, when they got water out of a rock and still found reason to complain about God not doing enough for them. Be thankful, if for no other reason than to keep God from getting peeved.
Even if this is not the best day in a series, take a moment to give thanks to God for all the good things that are going on. The list will be different for each of us, and that is good. In case any of us needs a nudge in the direction of thankfulness, the psalmist offers us some big ticket items for our list: God made the valleys, the mountains, the sea, the dry land. Oh, and on top of all that God takes care of us, watching over us as a shepherd watches over sheep, letting us wander and keeping as much danger as possible at bay.
June 14, 2021
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/
Monday, September 5, 2016
Psalm Meditation 847
Proper 19
September 11, 2016
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”
(NRSV)
The psalmist can be seen drawing a distinction between our God and the gods of others. Those people have a god of the depths, a god of the mountains, a god of the sea, and of the earth. Our people have one God who created all of those things and rules over them. In part it is cultural competitiveness, as one group makes light of another in order to win some contest in which our side makes the rules and decides the outcome. We rig the contest so that we win. The question continues to this day; are there multiple deities from which to choose or is there one?
We make the statement of faith that there is only one God. Then it gets interesting. Some people go on to say that this group or that group couldn’t possibly worship our God because they have other demands placed on them by their faith. In other cases, there are multiple deities with separate names and attributes, with different realms of power and influence. Some of us are quick to dismiss these folks as not worshipping the God we worship. If there is only one God, and I believe that, each religion touches a differing interpretation of who God is and the demands placed on us because of that.
I tend to see friends and family in a positive light. I know people who do not hold the same opinion of these people. Is one of us right and one of us wrong? Perhaps. It is just as likely that we have had different sets of experiences with this person. Does it seem as if we are talking about two different people when we apply our various filters to our opinions on someone? Definitely. Despite our different experiences and opinions we have the same person in mind. If we can do that with each other, we can certainly do that with God, who is beyond our ability to know and comprehend fully.
September 5, 2016
LCM
Proper 19
September 11, 2016
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”
(NRSV)
The psalmist can be seen drawing a distinction between our God and the gods of others. Those people have a god of the depths, a god of the mountains, a god of the sea, and of the earth. Our people have one God who created all of those things and rules over them. In part it is cultural competitiveness, as one group makes light of another in order to win some contest in which our side makes the rules and decides the outcome. We rig the contest so that we win. The question continues to this day; are there multiple deities from which to choose or is there one?
We make the statement of faith that there is only one God. Then it gets interesting. Some people go on to say that this group or that group couldn’t possibly worship our God because they have other demands placed on them by their faith. In other cases, there are multiple deities with separate names and attributes, with different realms of power and influence. Some of us are quick to dismiss these folks as not worshipping the God we worship. If there is only one God, and I believe that, each religion touches a differing interpretation of who God is and the demands placed on us because of that.
I tend to see friends and family in a positive light. I know people who do not hold the same opinion of these people. Is one of us right and one of us wrong? Perhaps. It is just as likely that we have had different sets of experiences with this person. Does it seem as if we are talking about two different people when we apply our various filters to our opinions on someone? Definitely. Despite our different experiences and opinions we have the same person in mind. If we can do that with each other, we can certainly do that with God, who is beyond our ability to know and comprehend fully.
September 5, 2016
LCM
Monday, February 10, 2014
Psalm Meditation 713
Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
February 16, 2014
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”
(NRSV)
We learn how to live and behave from those who have gone before us. Sometimes we learn what to do and other times we learn what we would rather not do. This psalm is coaching us in what not to do in our relationship with God. At Meribah and Massah the people asked for more than they needed. They didn’t just want water, they wanted proof that the water came from God. They could have stumbled on water accidently so they wanted to know that they had received this water directly from God. It didn’t dawn on them that even found water would be a gift from God.
It is one thing to put our faith to the test, it is pushing things farther yet to put God to the test. When we test our faith, we look for the presence of God in a difficult situation. The presence of God may not be immediately discernible in every situation, so we have to look more deeply with the eyes of faith. God may be calling us to something more pleasant or to something more difficult yet. It is up to us to find the call of God in the situation. When we are putting God to the test our question is not, ‘how is God present?’ so much as, ‘Is God present?’ We ask God for some kind of proof of divine existence or presence.
Do we want to live as the psalmist calls us to live in the first several verses or do we want to live as the folks at Meribah and Massah? It may not seem like much of a choice. What makes sense in theory is not always the way things come out in practice. It is so much easier to see God at work when all is going well for us. When things get rough we find ourselves questioning everything, including the presence and existence of God. Still the psalmist invites and encourages us to see the handiwork of God as a reminder that God was and is at work in the world and in our lives.
February 10, 2014
Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
February 16, 2014
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”
11 Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”
(NRSV)
We learn how to live and behave from those who have gone before us. Sometimes we learn what to do and other times we learn what we would rather not do. This psalm is coaching us in what not to do in our relationship with God. At Meribah and Massah the people asked for more than they needed. They didn’t just want water, they wanted proof that the water came from God. They could have stumbled on water accidently so they wanted to know that they had received this water directly from God. It didn’t dawn on them that even found water would be a gift from God.
It is one thing to put our faith to the test, it is pushing things farther yet to put God to the test. When we test our faith, we look for the presence of God in a difficult situation. The presence of God may not be immediately discernible in every situation, so we have to look more deeply with the eyes of faith. God may be calling us to something more pleasant or to something more difficult yet. It is up to us to find the call of God in the situation. When we are putting God to the test our question is not, ‘how is God present?’ so much as, ‘Is God present?’ We ask God for some kind of proof of divine existence or presence.
Do we want to live as the psalmist calls us to live in the first several verses or do we want to live as the folks at Meribah and Massah? It may not seem like much of a choice. What makes sense in theory is not always the way things come out in practice. It is so much easier to see God at work when all is going well for us. When things get rough we find ourselves questioning everything, including the presence and existence of God. Still the psalmist invites and encourages us to see the handiwork of God as a reminder that God was and is at work in the world and in our lives.
February 10, 2014
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