May 17, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 68, an assertive call for God to show up and do something about evil in the world:
Arise, O God, and let your enemies be scattered;
Psalm 68: 1-3
let those who hate you flee.
Let them vanish like smoke when the wind drives it away;
as the wax melts at the fire,
so let the wicked perish at your presence.
But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before you;
let them also be merry and joyful.
Haven’t we said a similar prayer many times in our lives? Doesn’t it rise up in us now as we watch war erupt in the Middle East, as we see India overwhelmed by COVID 19?
Don’t we want God to just fix things!
But the psalm itself reveals the only way healing and peace come into the world – it is through the triumph of justice in each of our hearts. Ultimately, God has made us the means to peace:
But the just rejoice and exult before God;
Psalm 68: 4-5
they are glad and rejoice.
Sing to God, chant praise to his name
whose name is the LORD.
The psalmist prays for communal wholeness by describing God’s active Mercy:
Protector of orphans, defender of widows,
Psalm 68: 6-7
the One who dwells in holiness,
who gives the solitary a home
and brings forth prisoners into freedom.
But God can only touch the suffering through our hands, prayers, and actions of justice. When we allow God to do that, then we can rejoice.
Sing to God, O dominions of the earth;
Psalm 68: 32-33
sing praises to the Lord.
You ride in the heavens, the ancient heavens, O God;
sending forth your voice, your mighty voice into our spirits
Poetry: Come to Dust – Ursula LeGuin
Spirit, rehearse the journeys of the body
that are to come, the motions
of the matter that held you.
Rise up in the smoke of palo santo.
Fall to the earth in the falling rain.
Sink in, sink down to the farthest roots.
Mount slowly in the rising sap
to the branches, the crown, the leaf-tips.
Come down to earth as leaves in autumn
to lie in the patient rot of winter.
Rise again in spring’s green fountains.
Drift in sunlight with the sacred pollen
to fall in blessing.
All earth’s dust
has been life, held soul, is holy.
Music: Let There Be Peace – Vince Gill
Sorry, it’s the non-inclusive version, but the pictures are so pretty😇
Lavish Mercy 