Psalms for Today ~ Can we say that to God?!?!

 

Read Psalms 34-36

 

Taste and see that the Lord is good ~ Psalm 34:8.  I invite you today to live that prayer practice as you munch on your Cheerios or chew your sandwich or pull up the chair to the dinner table.  How does the food you consume connect you to the Creator who crafted the carrots on your plate; the cows that contributed milk to your yogurt; and the bushes that produced the pecans?  Your plate of food represents the work of farmers, items grown in rain and sunshine, and were delivered by drivers to the store ~ or even your doorstep.  There are fingerprints on your food that reflect our Creator.  Hold the vastness in that bowl of granola.  Connect to the soil that nourished your broccoli.  Remember we are in a web of mutuality both as humanity and with our fragile planet. 

 

When you turn the page to Psalm 35 all that goodness of contemplation for the food that nurtures us goes out the door as the Psalmist lets loose with anger toward his/her/their enemies.  I encourage you to read this Psalm in the Message because the translator of that version, Eugene Peterson, is playfully faithful with his words.  He translates verse 1, “Harass these hecklers, God, punch these bullies in the nose.  Grab a weapon, anything at hand; stand up for me!”  Perhaps your first reaction is, can we say that to God?  The reality is that most of us have thought those words, but didn’t want to say the quiet part out loud.  I think these words when I read the news about billionaires making more money off the backs of the most vulnerable ~ which is painful history repeating itself.  I think this when I see our leaders fail to intervene on behalf of the vulnerable.  I think these words when I get frustrated and flummoxed by the state of the world, country and community.  We are not the “we” God has called us to be.  Because of that I say, “Ugh, God, do something!  Now please.”  As you read Psalm 35, pay attention to verses 13 and 14, when the enemy is ill, the Psalmist mourns.  Wait, what?  The psalmist doesn’t gloat, “What goes around comes around”.  Or “serves ‘em right”.  Hold the tension in this.  Or how can we live the tension of this?  Do we want to?

 

Psalm 36 continues to lament the way people can be so cruel and cause each other such pain.  I find verse 4 powerful, “Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong”.  While on the one hand, I want to think, “You tell ‘em Psalmist!  You preach prophetically about those people who are plotting and planning all kinds of bad things.”  But then, I remember sometimes I am the one who lies in bed at night reviewing the day, dreaming of snappy sarcastic comeback I could have said to that person.  Ugh.  You mean that sometimes I have a mouthful of wicked and deceitful words that are bitter to my tongue and cause brokenness?  Eek!  Let the emotions of these three psalms from goodness of God meeting you in your life to the bruises and brokenness that we all have on our souls.  Let these psalms give you permission to pray honestly to God what is stirring in your life in these days.  Amen.