Falsehood every person speaks...smooth talk, with two hearts they speak Psalm 12:3
Even though I have read the psalms in several settings over the years, I don't know that I caught onto just how concerned the Psalmist is with justice. Psalm 12 describes people who speechify with a golden tongue, only to turn around and plunder, trample on the poor. In many ways, the poetry of the Psalms echo the cries of the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and Micah. The call of the prophets is not only about an envisioned future God will usher in at some point, but for us to act faithfully today even when people speak falsehood with a smooth tongue and divided hearts. I turn on the news and hear people with smooth talk and a smile argue that people who are the fringes of society do not need help, that they can pull themselves up with their own bootstraps. Yet, Scripture, and especially the Psalms, have always called us to see those hanging on by a thread as people we need to reach out to with God's love. Those who struggle need more than for us to shrug our shoulders and think, "Oh well, not my problem." Scripture calls us to see the concern of our neighbor as our concern.
The Psalmists also deeply believed God would act, perhaps not in the way we think God should act, which is the rub with a passage like this. Even when we take the side of the poor, the call is still to be aware of our own lips and hearts. Sometimes we volunteer to feel good about ourselves. Sometimes we do it secretly thinking that our actions will earn us God's favor. We seek to care for the one on the edges simply because the person is incarnate in the image of God. This can be tough to hold onto when the person we seek to help yells at us or pushes us away. This can be tough to hold onto when the world preaches a gospel of fear. This can be tough because our own lives with work and family and trying to take care of our needs often leaves us feeling frazzled and hanging by a thread ourselves and little in our energy reserves.
The Psalmist does not give us an easy answer to this problem. The Psalmist doesn't pat us on the back and say, "Good job." Or "Hang in there." Rather, this psalm invites us to keep listening to and to allow our still speaking God to refine us and guide us and lead us. This means yielding to God. This is a practice each time we bring a bag of food for the hungry or donate clothes for the naked or provide shelter for the homeless. How do we yield to God's wisdom?
I encourage you prayerfully ponder this as you set out this week to welcome and share God's love with each and every person you brush and bump against.
May the traces of God's grace guide our outreach and sharing of that same grace this week.
The Psalmists also deeply believed God would act, perhaps not in the way we think God should act, which is the rub with a passage like this. Even when we take the side of the poor, the call is still to be aware of our own lips and hearts. Sometimes we volunteer to feel good about ourselves. Sometimes we do it secretly thinking that our actions will earn us God's favor. We seek to care for the one on the edges simply because the person is incarnate in the image of God. This can be tough to hold onto when the person we seek to help yells at us or pushes us away. This can be tough to hold onto when the world preaches a gospel of fear. This can be tough because our own lives with work and family and trying to take care of our needs often leaves us feeling frazzled and hanging by a thread ourselves and little in our energy reserves.
The Psalmist does not give us an easy answer to this problem. The Psalmist doesn't pat us on the back and say, "Good job." Or "Hang in there." Rather, this psalm invites us to keep listening to and to allow our still speaking God to refine us and guide us and lead us. This means yielding to God. This is a practice each time we bring a bag of food for the hungry or donate clothes for the naked or provide shelter for the homeless. How do we yield to God's wisdom?
I encourage you prayerfully ponder this as you set out this week to welcome and share God's love with each and every person you brush and bump against.
May the traces of God's grace guide our outreach and sharing of that same grace this week.
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