Psalms for Today ~ Lectio

 

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.