Psalm Meditation 1072 Epiphany Sunday January 3, 2021 Psalm 91 1 You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, 2 will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; 4 he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 5 You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, 6 or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, 10 no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot. 14 Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. 15 When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. 16 With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation. (NRSV) In every time and place there are folks who will find and make ways to test our love and loyalty. In times of stress and trauma these folks seem to need to test our loyalty more deeply and more regularly. There are those who will test the limits of this psalm on a regular basis. There are congregations in which the faithful will handle venomous snakes for a variety of reasons. I can only guess what those reasons might be. It seems that some handle snakes in worship as a way to demonstrate their faith, while others do it to test the faithfulness of God in the face of danger. Those who don’t handle snakes have other ways of demonstrating faith or testing God. Making bargains with or making demands on God are a couple of the ways many of us have been known to test the limits of God’s love for us. “If you do this for me, I will do that for you.” is a familiar bargaining method. It usually requires God to stretch the laws of Creation to the breaking point or beyond. And our reaction to God’s action places some regular inconvenience in our path. “God, you need to do this for us because we told all our friends you would, and we would hate for you to look bad in front of all these people.” goes beyond bargaining to demanding that God act. And if our demands are met we do not give thanks to God, we give an ‘I told you so,’ look to our friends. God loves us without condition and will be with us through all of the calamities and traumas that happen in our lives. If we get sick or hurt it does not mean that God has abandoned us. God is with us through it all. God will always be ready as a solid refuge from all of our troubles and trials, just as God is with us in each of our moments of joy and ease. We may not be rescued from trial the way we ask or expect, however, God is with us. “When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them.” December 28, 2020 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1071 First Sunday After Christmas December 27, 2020 Psalm 65 1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, 2 O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come. 3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. 4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. 5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. 6 By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. 7 You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. 8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. 9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. 10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. 12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy. (NRSV) God gives us a lot to be thankful for. God hears our prayers as they range from praise and thanksgiving to prayers that ask for action on our behalf. God offers us forgiveness when we reach the point at which we are overwhelmed by our sinful actions. God draws us to live in the divine presence as a gift from God’s heart. God provides us a rich variety and abundance from the earth with which to satisfy our needs in proper season. We have every reason to be in awe of the power of God in our lives. The better things are going for us the easier it is to forget the source of all of our good things. We begin to believe that what we have is due to our own hard work and that we have somehow done enough to deserve all that we have. God is not mean spirited enough to take it all away from us so that we will once again see the hand of God at work in our lives. I am sure that God is content to provide for us without having that generosity acknowledged at every turn. And God is pleased when we do notice the divine hand at work in our lives. Some folks live in a constant state of awe, on the edge of being overwhelmed by the activity of God around us. Some folks take time in every day to give thanks to God for providing for our needs and wants. Some folks express gratitude even when they are not feeling very grateful in hopes that saying it will help make it happen. God is at work in our lives whether we notice and acknowledge it or not. “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come.” December 21, 2020 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1070 Fourth Sunday of Advent December 20, 2020 Psalm 140 1 Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers; protect me from those who are violent, 2 who plan evil things in their minds and stir up wars continually. 3 They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers. Selah 4 Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent who have planned my downfall. 5 The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net, along the road they have set snares for me. Selah 6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God; give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications.” 7 O Lord, my Lord, my strong deliverer, you have covered my head in the day of battle. 8 Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot. Selah 9 Those who surround me lift up their heads; let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them! 10 Let burning coals fall on them! Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise! 11 Do not let the slanderer be established in the land; let evil speedily hunt down the violent! 12 I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy, and executes justice for the poor. 13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall live in your presence. (NRSV) Those who live and work in any sort of public sphere will live with criticism from those around us. Anything that we say or do will be open for comment from those who are in the room with us, to those who heard about it second hand, to those who simply want to jump in to a complaint fest. Some of the critiques are valid and will benefit us as we are able to address them for ourselves. Some are valid points of view in which we acknowledge our difference of opinion, learn to live with the differences, or part company in some way. Some are mean spirited and if we comply with their demands, the demands will change so that we are continually in the wrong. Prayer is a fitting response to any type of criticism. It opens us to the workings of God in our lives. Most of the time the transformation that takes place in prayer is not about what is going on outside us, the transformation is from within. When the criticism is valid we make the change because it makes sense to us to do so. Even the mean spirited, destructive complaints have the potential of teaching us how to move forward in our lives despite the intentions of the complainer. Whether burning coals fall on folks as they fall into pits filled with evil because of what they have said to us and about us, we can see their influence drop off in our lives. Even as the wounds and scars remain, the people who inflicted them will lose their power and influence over our lives. The other person will not have changed, it will be our attitude toward them that will have changed. In some cases those who have been a source of evil in our lives will meet a fate that falls in line with our fantasies and supplications lifted to God. Sometimes those folks will go through a conversion experience of their own, will ask our forgiveness for their previous behavior, and all will be well between us. Most of the time we will have a change of heart about them. We will see them in a new light that makes their attacks understandable by putting them into a perspective based on their life and experience. Our transformation is rarely instant, it takes weeks and maybe decades to nurture the change within ourselves without feeling beat down by our original perception of the complaint and the complainer. December 14, 2020 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1069 Third Sunday of Advent December 13, 2020 Psalm 40 1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. 4 Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. 5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted. 6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. 7 Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” 9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. 10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. 11 Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever. 12 For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me. 13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. 14 Let all those be put to shame and confusion who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt. 15 Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!” 16 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” 17 As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God. (NRSV) Music makes a difference in our lives. In the midst of grief and trauma we may lose the ability to be touched and moved by music, and we may not be able to hear the songs that rise up within us. We can still sing, and play any instruments with the same skill we had prior to our life changing event but we can’t feel the music stir our hearts and souls to the heights and depths of glory in the same way we could before. When the psalmist writes, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” it strikes a chord with those of us who have heard and felt the newness God offers. As we grieve, a space is hollowed out within us that draws us down to a desolate pit that seems as if it will hold us down forever. At some point God reaches in and offers to pull us “up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” As a part of pulling us out of the depths God re-invigorates the gift of music within us. When we get the music back we may feel it more deeply as the well of grief allows us a new depth of passion and emotion in our song. Some people never get beyond their grief. They hold on to it as if it is the only connection left to the way life used to be. They rehearse it and renew it on a regular basis. They refuse to look up to see the hand of God offering to pull them out of the pit. Others see God at work in their lives and take God’s hand when it is offered to them. The pit remains in both cases. For some it is a stifling enclosure that holds them tightly for the rest of their lives. For others it becomes a place that adds depth to their lives and allows them a new and deeper well of understanding of themselves and others. December 7, 2020 LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/

Psalm Meditation 1068 Second Sunday of Advent December 6, 2020 Psalm 115 1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and our faithfulness. 2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. 7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats. 8 Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them. 9 O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 12 The Lord has been mindful of us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; 13 he will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great. 14 May the Lord give you increase, both you and your children. 15 May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 16 The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to human beings. 17 The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence. 18 But we will bless the Lord from this time on and forevermore. Praise the Lord! (NRSV) There will always be those who believe differently from us. It is likely that each of us believes a slight variation of what those around us believe. It is the variety that makes for interesting discussion, raging arguments, and a variety of schools of thought within many religious groups. We are willing to give each other some leeway in beliefs as long as we agree on some fundamentals of the faith. Once we pass the threshold of tolerance we feel the need to part ways since ‘those’ people are so wrong that we can no longer stand to be in the same room with them. Once that split is made, ‘those’ people are no longer seen as different, they are seen as wrong. Since they are wrong they can be lumped together into large groups of evil, sinful people whose errors in faith, belief, and practice will doom them to an eternity of suffering, death, or total annihilation. The psalmist says it this way, “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence.” Since people are rarely hated or bullied into faithfulness, we would do well to practice our faith in such a way that we model a life of faith and trust in God. Salvation is not something we can earn for ourselves, or that we can give to others. Salvation is a gift that God gives. Perhaps our lives of faith will serve as an example for others. People are drawn more quickly to an example of blessing from God than from constant judgment from folks who claim to do so in the name of God. “May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” November 30, 2020 LCM

Psalm Meditation 1067 First Sunday of Advent November 29, 2020 Psalm 15 1 O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? 2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; 3 who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; 4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the Lord; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; 5 who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved. (NRSV) We like to know the rules and expectations when we are involved in an activity or game. We are especially intent on the rules when our lives are on the line, so this is one of the psalms we should each have memorized. My guess is that we have paid little attention to this psalm because these rules are hard. Each of three verses has three rules, with two rules in the last verse. In each verse there is at least one difficult rule. Chances are that the difficult rule is different from person to person. Most of us have found a way to justify our actions when we enforce the rules for everyone, except ourselves. We are perfectly content to have one set of rules for our people and a different set for ‘those’ people. In a lot of cases we may not even realize that we make things more difficult for those who are not like us. When we get called out on our inconsistencies we deny that we look at one group differently than another. And if we can point out ‘their’ inconsistencies easily, we are probably guilty of some of our own. If we have to keep all of these rules all the time in order to be welcomed into God’s tent on God’s holy hill, I imagine that it will be a small tent with very few people, if any, in it. We are left to hope that we have some way of paying for our infractions of these rules: a penalty box, a foul, a do-over of some kind that makes us responsible for our actions without having to toss us out of the game. Something like God’s steadfast love and forgiveness. November 23, 2020 LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/

Psalm Meditation 1066 Reign of Christ November 22, 2020 Psalm 90 1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh. 10 The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. 12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. 13 Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands—O prosper the work of our hands! (NRSV) One of my mentors defined anger as ‘a boat floating on a sea of fear, realize what you are afraid of and you don’t have to be so angry.’ So what is God afraid of that needs to be expressed as divine wrath? One possibility is that God is afraid for us. There are a lot of ways to move away from God and they each have a consequences. We see the glittery temptation dangling in front of us and move toward it. God’s wrath is kindled when the temptation shows its true colors and begins to do damage to us. God reacts out of fear for our safety. Some of us see God as angry and aloof as a default setting. God is always looking for reasons to be angry with us, and excuses to punish us. More accurately, God is looking for reasons to pass judgment on ‘those’ people, the ones who do all the things that we and God find annoying and sinful. Our task is to point out all the reasons that God is angry in order to force ‘them’ to do things the way they should; our way. God’s anger just happens to be directed at those with whom we disagree. The wrath of God is directed toward anything that moves someone away from the divine presence. When we emphasize the finger wagging judgment of God we are more likely to push someone away than draw them back. It is when we meet saints and sinners with the love of God that people are drawn into the divine presence and the communion of saints. It is through compassion and steadfast love that we rejoice and prosper in the presence of God. November 16, 2020 LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/