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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
October 30, 2024
Miryam of Qidun, Fourth Century
Reading: Psalm 31:15-24
My times are in your hand; *
rescue me from the hand of my enemies,
and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine upon your servant, *
and in your loving-kindness save me."
Lord, let me not be ashamed for having called upon you; *
rather, let the wicked be put to shame;
let them be silent in the grave.
Let the lying lips be silenced which speak against the righteous, *
haughtily, disdainfully, and with contempt.
How great is your goodness, O Lord!
which you have laid up for those who fear you; *
which you have done in the sight of all
for those who put their trust in you.
You hide them in the covert of your presence from those who slander them; *
you keep them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.
Blessed be the Lord! *
for he has shown me the wonders of his love in a besieged city.
Yet I said in my alarm,
"I have been cut off from the sight of your eyes." *
Nevertheless, you heard the sound of my entreaty
when I cried out to you.
Love the Lord, all you who worship him; *
the Lord protects the faithful,
but repays to the full those who act haughtily.
Be strong and let your heart take courage, *
all you who wait for the Lord.
Meditation - Peter Vanderveen
Jesus, somewhat notoriously, said that we should love our enemies. How, then, should we read this psalm? It is both a compelling and a dangerous text.
The psalm is, in part, a resolute cry of faith. The writer is clearly under threat, and the conditions are so dire that only God – God alone – can provide deliverance. This is the fundamental promise made to those who are faithful, so we assume. For this is what God, uniquely, has to offer. And this is why prayers rise up from foxholes. God is our last, best source of security. When all seems lost, we will not be left bereft. Faith, even that of a mustard seed, can prove to be enough to lead us to safety. At root, all of us want to believe this, especially when nothing we’re experiencing seems to confirm that this is true. Even the psalmist is holding on by the thinnest of threads. His last shreds of confidence remain, however, in his fearful exclamation, grasping after God.
It’s understandable. We never want hope to die. And, thus, we depend on God’s determination to save those in the right. This is what gives our life meaning: the conviction that there is both an order to the world and there will be a final reckoning. There must be. And those who served the right will be rewarded, and those who, wrongly, sowed destruction will be abandoned to their fate. It’s hard to imagine anything more fixedly ingrained in us.
Yet it’s the shortest of steps from this to the conviction that whoever is our enemy must be wrong in the eyes of God, and, therefore, deserving of total annihilation. “Let them be silent in the grave,” said the psalmist. Few, if any, of us can claim that we’ve never thought this. Some, who are presently powerful on the world stage, believe this and act accordingly. Is this, however, in accord with the Gospel?
Jesus himself didn’t invoke this psalm as his enemies closed in. Nor was he delivered from their fury. Nor did he demand God’s judgment of them in return. His only word after his resurrection was “peace.” So what should we make of this text?
It stands, I think, as a reminder of what was overturned by Jesus’ death and resurrection. That which often seems most absolutely right is, in fact, quite wrong. And God’s deliverance is different from what the psalmist expected. So is God’s judgment. So is the meaning of the world. The dramatic uprooting of what we most hold to by God’s revelation in Jesus is what is recited every week in the Eucharist. It’s often met with rather humdrum reception. What the psalmist gives us is reason, again and again, to recognize the Gospel’s untameable boldness. It gives us a whole new way to exclaim, “Great is your goodness, O Lord.”
Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen
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