Psalms for Today

 

Read Psalms 70-72

 

Yesterday, we let loose our inner Aretha Franklin and sang out praise to God from whom all blessings flow.  Today, we join B.B. King in singing the blues.  This began yesterday with Psalm 69, the thread and theme of brokenness continues in Psalms 70 and 71.  Remember, over one-third of the Psalms are lament, so every week you are getting a healthy dose of the Psalmist crying out, pleading with God to be God.  I am aware of how often we have sold Christianity as a commodity in our world.  As clergy, we lay out a formula of Psalm 1 ~ be a good person, pray, help others, and don’t let Darth Vader sell you a set of steak knives ~ equals ~ all will be well.  So many people have walked away from the church because that formula was practiced in their life…and their life turned out to be more tragic than beautiful.

Then, to add salt to the wound, the pastor told them that they just needed to pray harder and trust or that it was their fault.  Ouch!!  No wonder people think, “I’m outta here.”  This way of Christianity is our human desire to reduce religion to something we can control or comprehend.  But remember, “Praise is the final mystery”.  There is more than an orientation or a formula to religion.  Faith is a messy chemistry experiment in our lives.  This is the disorientation or the reality that bad things happen to good people.  Sometimes my prayers, passionate as they are, don’t seem to be answered in the way I want, when I want, exactly how I want.  When I face the obstacle of pain, I can either walk away from God, or wonder who is this God I seek and how is God seeking me?  Recall the Parable of the Prodigal family where the father does not go out seeking either of the wayward sons (because I believe both sons left ~ one physically and the other emotionally).  God watches, actively waits, and runs toward us as we move toward the Divine.  God doesn’t swoop in and save us from all brokenness and bruises of life, because in life and faith, we are free to choose; we need only face the consequences.  How am I living?  What are my expectations, and why am I living this way?  That is, am I living kindness because I believe this will earn me a gold star for my heavenly sash?  Or am I living kindness because I feel deep in my soul that is God’s way?  Can I live in the tension that while I choose love, others do not and will not?  Can I be in the uncomfortable place of affirming/celebrating others as fully formed in God’s image, while others cling to rating and ranking?  The Psalms cannot be reduced to some formula for life, but rather hold a mirror to our beautiful human messiness!  I pray today you won’t hide from your one wild, precious, broken, beautiful life, but let all of that be part of the praise you offer God, others, and the world.  Amen.