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Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany
February 19, 2025
Reading: Psalm 25:1-9
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; my God, I put my trust in you; *
let me not be humiliated, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
Let none who look to you be put to shame; *
let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.
Show me your ways, O Lord, *
and teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me, *
for you are the God of my salvation;
in you have I trusted all the day long.
Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, *
for they are from everlasting.
Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; *
remember me according to your love
and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
Gracious and upright is the Lord; *
therefore he teaches sinners in his way.
He guides the humble in doing right *
and teaches his way to the lowly.
All the paths of the Lord are love and faithfulness *
to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Meditation - Peter Vanderveen
Faith is tenuous. It’s supposed to be.
And one of the most entrenched problems for the church is our desire – or our insistence – that belief should be cloaked in certainty. We feel compelled to dress up God in absolutes, as if God, by very definition, must be above question – both God’s existence and God’s actions. This has made God rigid and static and brittle. And, correspondingly, this hardens faith into dogma that either assures those who believe that they are righteous (or just plain right) or threatens those who don’t share this same clarity.
None of the psalms, however, convey this very modern smugness. In them, God is not an object that, once defined, can be employed for one’s own benefit. God is mysterious and sometimes impish. God is, in short, one with whom we are in relationship. And, as with all relationships, God’s proximity, intimacy, and companionship can seem to wax and wane. The verses above are most characterized by a sense of hopeful pleading. The writer seems to be nudging God, looking for his trust to be answered by God’s good will. But there’s no implication by the psalmist that an agreeable response from God must be forthcoming. The repeated use of the word “let” indicates the kind of waiting for something that is not at all determined. And asking God to “remember” suggests that it is just as possible for God to forget, whether by choice or by simply having something slip God’s mind. (This isn’t how we tend to think of God, is it.)
There’s something horribly deadening about a God defined by absolutes. No one really cares. More to the point, no one really can care about such a God. The same holds for the church – about which many people simply don’t care (this, more and more, defines our era). When faith is understood to be tenuous, however – when there’s always something tangible and lively at stake in any contemplation of belief – then, paradoxically, God matters. Then worship matters. And then the church, freed from dogmatic harshness, can matter for those who attend and for those who don’t, yet are seeking a context of care for their lives.
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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