Dearest e-votees-
This week’s appointed psalmody is Psalm 31:1-5; 15-16. The actual psalm is 24 verses long. Perhaps it was shortened for Sunday for brevity’s sake; perhaps some cutting of uncomfortable passages occurred as well. It is given in complete form below. The non-appointed portions of the psalm are bracketed off.
Peace,
Karl
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To the leader. A Psalm of David.
1 In you, O Lord, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me.
2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.
3 You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me and guide me,
4 take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
[6 You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.
7 I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have taken heed of my adversities,
8 and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.
11 I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
13 For I hear the whispering of many— terror all around!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”]
15 My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
16 Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
[17 Do not let me be put to shame, O Lord, for I call on you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.
18 Let the lying lips be stilled that speak insolently against the righteous with pride and contempt.
19 O how abundant is your goodness that you have laid up for those who fear you, and accomplished for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of everyone!
20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them from human plots; you hold them safe under your shelter from contentious tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was beset as a city under siege.
22 I had said in my alarm, “I am driven far from your sight.” But you heard my supplications when I cried out to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all you his saints. The Lord preserves the faithful, but abundantly repays the one who acts haughtily.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.]
The psalm begins with David seeking refuge in God. No matter what comes our way in life—good or bad; deserved or unjustly inflicted; in times of sure footing or slipping on shifting sands—God is our rock and our salvation. Our hope and our help are in God. Our times and everything else is found resting in God’s hands. We commend our spirits and our lives and our every moments into God’s love and redemption—we imperil that which we do not entrust to God’s care.
The next section of the psalm is left on the cutting room floor by the pericopists (those who created the lectionary—literally the ones doing the “cutting around”). Perhaps because David takes a little too much solace in the hatred of God towards the idolaters. Perhaps David is too proud. Perhaps because it is a little dour and depressing pondering where David and, by extension, where we fall short, are weak and spent, are set upon and are likened unto death. But the truth is we are like broken vessels. The Holy Spirit has come into us and our earthen vessels have been cracked. Sometimes they are cracked open in preparation of caring for one in the image of God—like the costly ointment slathered on Jesus’ feet. Sometimes they are cracked open through our sin and sin inflicted upon us and the Holy Spirit seems to run out of the vessel, through our hands and then on to who knows where? But our statement of faith, with David, is still “You are my God.” In spite of the rough and tumble ways of life and sin that has taken root God is our God.
The appointed psalm continues with a prayer for deliverance and a request for benediction. It is akin to Jacob wrestling with God not letting go until a blessing is his. As we wrestle with life and death, success and failure, obligation and inspiration, hope and despair, faith and doubt we know that God’s love is steadfast and that God wills that we would all be saved. So we pray and pray and pray again for deliverance and blessing—for us and for those who beset us.
The last portion, which also was excised by the pericopists, again prays from deep places of pain and struggle. There is a prayer for deliverance. There is testimony that God hears the supplications of God’s people. There is an acknowledgment that there is protection from human plots and contentious tongues under God’s shelter. As said so clearly in the Jars of Clay song “Shelter”—in the shelter of each other we will live. How much more so in the shelter of God’s love and grace and peace and mercy do we live?
The truth is this psalm disturbs us and the pericopists because it acknowledges that there really are enemies of us and of God—and the more disturbing truth is that we can walk as enemies of ourselves, our brothers and sisters and even God. The psalm cuts because it betrays our divided hearts, our slanderous tongues, our impure motives and our harmful ways. Thanks be to God that God sees us even more clearly than we do ourselves and loves us with an unrelenting and redeeming love. We dwell in the shelter of a loving God—our times are in God’s hands.
God, teach us to be loving to enemies, to be gracious to those who are not there yet, to care for the unlovely—and let us be gracious enough to let others do that for our sake as well. Amen.
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