Dear e-votees-
This Sunday is the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany. The appointed psalm reading for this Sunday in year B of the lectionary is Psalm 62:5-12. I have included the entire psalm below for consideration in our devotional thoughts this week.
May we patiently and faithfully serve our God and God’s people as we patiently and faithfully wait for our salvation and deliverance to come fully into force in our lives and in the world. God has the power and the means to bring this about.
Peace,
Karl
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For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
How long will you assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence. They take pleasure in falsehood; they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,
and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.
Psalm 62 (NRSV)
This psalm contrasts two ways of engaging power and seeking to secure salvation. There is the way of all of those made in God’s image (that would be all of us) seek these things. There is the way that those of us abiding in God’s plan (an ever-changing subset of the first group) seek these things.
Our newspapers and our television screens have been full of people engaging power and seeking security. Locally and internationally we hear of promises and circumstances. We hear of hope and betrayed trust. We hear words of praise and exultation as well as words of condemnation and slander. We needn’t look much further than the bathroom mirror to see people seeking to engage the powers that be and seeking to secure salvation in broken and detrimental ways. And ever since the garden we haven’t been seeking these things—power and salvation—well.
The psalmist knows our sinful frailties all too well. We tear down those who are weak and tottering like a backyard fix-it project. We hang on false words. We speak nicely to people’s faces but sometimes have a knife waiting until the opportune moment when the back is turned. We trust the circumstances into which we were born or unjust gains (slander, extortion, robbery, etc.) or the fleeting promises of worldly riches as means of power and assurance of salvation (worldly or eternal).
God has a different way and a different plan for us all. God calls on all of us to wait and to trust. We are invited to pour out our hearts to God (prayer, meditation, confession, etc.). God doesn’t tear down the tottering wall nor extinguish the flickering wick nor break the bruised reed. God turns the powers and the structures of the world upside down granting peace and hope and salvation to those (including us) who seem most undeserving. God invites us into a holy refuge.
There is work to be done in this broken world. God will work through us. We dwell in a world full of misspent power and false salvations. Nonetheless we don’t get to hide away in our prayer rooms waiting for God to finally come back and set things right. The scene in Sister Act where the nuns spill out of the convent into the streets to make a positive difference in their immediate spheres of influence is our call to duty and service this day. With prayer and humility, with towel and basin, we are sent to serve. Jesus came to show us the way. May that way be ours today.
God, you are our rock and our salvation. Let us bless others as you have so richly blessed us. Give us courage and faith and hearts to serve. Amen.
This Sunday is the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany. The appointed psalm reading for this Sunday in year B of the lectionary is Psalm 62:5-12. I have included the entire psalm below for consideration in our devotional thoughts this week.
May we patiently and faithfully serve our God and God’s people as we patiently and faithfully wait for our salvation and deliverance to come fully into force in our lives and in the world. God has the power and the means to bring this about.
Peace,
Karl
-----------------
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
How long will you assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence. They take pleasure in falsehood; they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,
and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.
This psalm contrasts two ways of engaging power and seeking to secure salvation. There is the way of all of those made in God’s image (that would be all of us) seek these things. There is the way that those of us abiding in God’s plan (an ever-changing subset of the first group) seek these things.
Our newspapers and our television screens have been full of people engaging power and seeking security. Locally and internationally we hear of promises and circumstances. We hear of hope and betrayed trust. We hear words of praise and exultation as well as words of condemnation and slander. We needn’t look much further than the bathroom mirror to see people seeking to engage the powers that be and seeking to secure salvation in broken and detrimental ways. And ever since the garden we haven’t been seeking these things—power and salvation—well.
The psalmist knows our sinful frailties all too well. We tear down those who are weak and tottering like a backyard fix-it project. We hang on false words. We speak nicely to people’s faces but sometimes have a knife waiting until the opportune moment when the back is turned. We trust the circumstances into which we were born or unjust gains (slander, extortion, robbery, etc.) or the fleeting promises of worldly riches as means of power and assurance of salvation (worldly or eternal).
God has a different way and a different plan for us all. God calls on all of us to wait and to trust. We are invited to pour out our hearts to God (prayer, meditation, confession, etc.). God doesn’t tear down the tottering wall nor extinguish the flickering wick nor break the bruised reed. God turns the powers and the structures of the world upside down granting peace and hope and salvation to those (including us) who seem most undeserving. God invites us into a holy refuge.
There is work to be done in this broken world. God will work through us. We dwell in a world full of misspent power and false salvations. Nonetheless we don’t get to hide away in our prayer rooms waiting for God to finally come back and set things right. The scene in Sister Act where the nuns spill out of the convent into the streets to make a positive difference in their immediate spheres of influence is our call to duty and service this day. With prayer and humility, with towel and basin, we are sent to serve. Jesus came to show us the way. May that way be ours today.
God, you are our rock and our salvation. Let us bless others as you have so richly blessed us. Give us courage and faith and hearts to serve. Amen.
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