Psalm Meditation 1257 ¶Proper 11 ¶July 21, 2024 ¶Psalm 140 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+140&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶It is amazingly easy to get sucked in to the vortex of evil. It starts innocently enough with a snarky remark made to a few friends. The next downward spiral is to get mean, picking at a person’s vulnerable points, discovered via friendship that turns sour using confidences as weapons. And on it goes until we hope and plan for the total destruction of the other through intentional misinterpretation of words and actions all the way to physical acts of violence that can lead to the ruin of a reputation and in the most extreme cases death. ¶The psalmist asks to be delivered from all of this kind of evil from friends and enemies alike. Obviously, it is impossible to avoid all of this kind of evil plotting, so an alternative is to live in such a way that no one will believe the kinds of gossip that can otherwise ruin a reputation. After the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, her journal revealed that she had deep doubts about her faith and relationship with God. It was quite salacious to those looking for a reason to question Teresa’s reputation. It was understandable and humanizing to those who know that doubts and fears are often the push one needs to move a step closer in a relationship with God. ¶The psalmist encourages us to move closer to the teachings of God, who encourages us to lift up the poor and the needy as part of the beloved community of God’s people. In addition to working for an end to all manner of poverty, we can lean in the direction of justice for all rather than only for those who can afford it. God and God’s people do what we can to lift up the needy, and stive for justice in every possible way. ¶July 16, 2024 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1256 ¶Proper 10 ¶July 14, 2024 ¶Psalm 134 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+134&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶“It is really important to thank God so that God will do me a favor in return.” Whether we say it that way or not, we do have a tendency to believe that if we do the right things, God will do right by us. When that happens we can tell all of our friends how good God is to us, because we are some of the good guys. If you want good things, you have to, at least, go through the motions to get God to bless you just like God blesses us on a regular basis. “I am pretty sure that this is what the psalm means, bless God and you will be blessed in return.” ¶One of my long ago congregation members called this, ‘stuff and nonsense.’ We do not get good things because of anything that we do for good or ill. We get good things because God loves us more than anyone can imagine. God is not waiting for us to do good things so that we can earn our reward, or waiting for us to mess up so that we can get the punishment we deserve. God loves us, and is ever looking for ways to give us what we need. With God it is never about earning or deserving, it is always about receiving the grace, love, and mercy that God wants to give to us. ¶We bless God out of a sense of gratitude for all God is and does in and around us. It is our small way of acknowledging the present and active love of God in our lives. God blesses us because it is the nature and promise of God to do so. In our competitive mind set, we want to know that we have deserved all that we have. In the mind of God, we are given a lot to share with others as God has shared with us. It really is that simple. ¶July 8, 2024 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1255 ¶Proper 9 ¶July 7, 2024 ¶Psalm 127 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+127&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶This psalm seems to deal with three different topics, as if it is a group of adages concerning good things that God provides for each of us. God watches over those who build houses and communities with an eye for safety and wholesomeness. God watches over those who do the best work they are able on a given day and go home to rest and recreate with a clear conscience. God watches over men, and women, who have sons, and daughters, of whom they are proud. It is certainly not an exhaustive list, simply a few of the ways God is active in the life of a community. ¶The psalmist wants us to see that God is actively involved in a number of pieces that make up a community. The bricks and mortar part of the community are important to God. Use quality material for every structure, watch over each other as people of sacred worth. The relationships of a community are important to God. Spend quality time at your work, and then go home in peace for rest and restoration in the company of loved ones. The family relationships of a community are important to God. Look with pride on each member of the family as a gift from God. ¶Our times are different from those of the psalmist. The details of what it means to be a community have changed for better and for worse. The important part for us is to see God at work in every part of our lives and the lives of those around us. We can still take the main points of the psalm for our day to day dealings: use quality materials every time, do our best work every time, feel and express our pride in the people who make up our various families—by birth and affinity. ¶July 1, 2024 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1254 ¶Proper 8 ¶June 30, 2024 ¶Psalm 120 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+120&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶The second verse is interestingly ambiguous. Is the deliverance from the psalmist’s lying lips and deceitful tongue or from those of another? Either one is going to need the power of God for deliverance. Our own lips can become so comfortable with lies that they begin to sound like the truth to us. We deceive ourselves by repeating the lies over and over until we lose touch with what is true and what is fabricated. We have less control over the lies of others. We cannot know if those lies are intentional or misperceptions from those spreading the lies. As others come to believe what is being said, damage is done to all involved. ¶If only there were a way to tell truth from falsehood easily. If our noses grew like Pinocchio's, or our tongues burst into flames with the first untruth that came tripping off of them, we could hold ourselves and each other accountable for the falsehoods we spread to and about ourselves and those around us. Since that doesn’t happen we have to guard our own tongues and hold each other accountable for what we say, and how we say it. Even some truth is better kept to ourselves to avoid unnecessary damage to the people who impact our lives. ¶Meshech and Kedar are the farthest reaches of known civilization for the psalmist. When we are caught up in a system of lies and deceit we become separated from the people who mean a lot to us. When we seek to make peace without coming to terms with the lies we have told and had told about us we continue to break each other into pieces. It is only when we allow ourselves to join together in the presence of God that we can find release from lying lips that will bring us to a life of peace. ¶June 24, 2024 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1253 ¶Proper 7 ¶June 23, 2024 ¶Psalm 113 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+113&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶Those of us who have some privilege are of the opinion that we are here because God has put us here because we have done something to deserve it. The poor are poor because they have done something to deserve the punishment of poverty. It is a comforting way of looking at the world, however it is probably not accurate. Poverty, having no resources beyond necessity, seems to be the way we come into the world as well as the way we leave. The Bible is pretty clear that having more than enough is more dangerous to our souls than having too little. ¶The way of the world is to keep getting more and more stuff, and then to hold on to it, just in case. We don’t need to share with others because we each have what we have earned and deserve. We protect what we own, even as we yearn and strive for more. Ideally, we want, not just more but, more than anyone we know. Helping others in any way is seen as a sign of weakness, and makes us a target for every money, property, resource grubbing person around us. ¶The way of God and the people of God is to share our good fortune with others who have deep needs. We share with others out of gratitude for all with which God has blessed us. According to the Bible, the reason we have more than we need, is to share with those whose need is greater than ours. Any hoarding of resources is probably as sinful as stealing from those around us. It is God’s desire for each of us to raise the poor from the dust, to give them equal standing with us, even if it means having less ourselves. ¶June 17, 2024 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1252 ¶Proper 6 ¶June 16, 2024 ¶Psalm 106 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+106&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶Some of the psalms, and this is one of them, serve to remind us that God loves us continually and steadfastly. God’s love is not given to us only when we are good and right, God loves us all the time. During the exodus from Egypt, God did not walk away from the people the first time they disobeyed or questioned God’s motives in bringing folks out into the desert. God stuck with this foolish and stiff necked people from generation to generation, despite their wandering away from God on a regular basis. ¶This also applies to us. We have grown so used to believing that what God wants from us is for us to follow all the rules. At the very least, we believe that God wants everyone else to follow the rules that we have chosen as important. Each time we call someone to account for breaking one of God’s rules, others can find us guilty of another of those rules. I am sure that I have judged someone harshly for breaking a rule that I keep meticulously while breaking another one that is of the same importance. ¶“Both we and our ancestors have sinned; we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly.“ It is one of those, ‘everyone is doing it, so it must be okay’ situations, and is certainly deeply human practice. Perhaps the psalmist is reminding us that we can be a little less quick to judge others by our own standards, rejoice that God loves us no matter what, and attempt to keep a closer eye on our own actions than on those of others. When we point ourselves toward serving and loving God we can be open to the love of God at work in us, as well as God at work in the lives of those around us. ¶June 10, 2024 ¶LCM

Psalm Meditation 1251 ¶Proper 5 ¶June 9, 2024 ¶Psalm 135 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+135&version=NRSVUE (NRSVUE) ¶In the biblical era, every nation had at least one deity that was solely concerned with that particular people. Most of the groups had multiple deities whose portfolios were confined to a few concerns. Israel’s God was seen as a singular being who was in charge of all the concerns of the people of Israel. The Israelites were okay with other nations having their own divinities, however, they had a relationship with YHWH, who was concerned for all that went on in the nation, and was concerned about any who challenged this chosen people. ¶While it was okay for other nations to have deities for every purpose, it was also seen as okay for Israel to make fun of those people and the deities they worshipped. The psalmist claims that those others are nothing but idols made of stone, wood or precious metals. They couldn’t hear or see, so they could not possibly respond to the needs of the nation who called on them. This was not a one sided venture, every nation made fun of the deities worshipped by every other nation. ¶Through the years and centuries the deities of the world have crossed national boundaries. I believe that there is only one deity, who is so beyond our ability to comprehend that we can but claim bits and pieces of that one to meet our needs. That one God enfolds each of us, with our belief and behavior system into a single loving embrace. I could be wrong, and I am, mostly, okay with that. I will continue to hold to my belief that our God, whom we call YHWH, steadfastly loves each one of us because it is the nature of God to do that. ¶June 4, 2024 ¶LCM