Read Psalms 109-111
This week, we are engaging in an
ancient practice of reading Scripture called, Lectio Divina. A quick review, the steps are:
Step one: read the three Psalms
for today slowly, savoring the syllables and noticing the meaning you are
making of the sentence. You are
encouraged to write these down.
Step two: take a breath and sit
with the word or words from the Psalms that you wrote down or circled.
Step three: take a breath and
pray your curiosity or frustration that was evoked from step two.
Step four: breathe and rest in
God, who is our refuge.
Step five:
embody/enact/intention ~ commit to one action or way inspired by the Psalm
today.
Let me walk through this prayer
practice of reading with Psalm 109 (which I find very challenging to read) as
my inspiration.
Step one: The words that leapt
off the page from this Hebrew Poem: “words of hate and attack me without
cause.” The long list of all the evil
the writer wishes on his/her/their enemies (makes social media seem downright
quaint and calm). When do I compare and
despair? When does my inner Chicken
Little try to convince others that the sky is falling!?
Step two: I sit with the words
above, letting what I wrote meet me with love, honesty, grace, truth, and God’s
presence.
Step three: I pray to God, “Holy
Hum of the Universe, there are moments I get cynical, especially when I see
others getting ahead through means of injustice. God, I cry out to You for immigrants who work
hard doing jobs others will not do and don’t want to do. I cry out for those who are being treated as
less than human and are targeted. I cry
out to You for our LGBTQ siblings who are constantly dehumanized and have
discrimination brought in legislation. I
pray for our African-American, Hispanic, and BIPOC siblings who have always
lived with the hostile stare and glare, words dripping with prejudice, that
this was never back then and always present tense. God, I need help because I don’t know where
to start. So give me strength this day
to both lament and act; both realize my own complacency and complicity as well
as speak out. Re-order my life with Your
realm.”
Step four: I wait with God to
fill me, mold me, fill me, and send me.
Step five: I offer my intention to be a vessel of God’s peace and an instrument of God’s non-violent compassion and extravagant love for the world that is more than I can imagine. Amen.
