Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 8, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 9. It, together with Psalm 10, forms an acrostic which ultimately proclaims profound hope in God’s immutable justice, especially toward the poor and oppressed. But it takes us through a lot fire and brimstone to get there!
When we read the entire Psalm 9, we realize that the psalmist starts out in a lot of trouble:
Be gracious to me, LORD;
Psalm 9:14
see how my foes afflict me!
You alone can raise me from the gates of death
Match that with Joel’s community which is in the midst of a terrible drought. Joel uses the situation to teach that we must withstand many evils in life — not just droughts — in order to keep faith with God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
Joel 2:1-2
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all who dwell in the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming;
Yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom,
a day of clouds and somberness!
In the end however, Joel assures the community — as does the psalmist — that God is present even in treacherous circumstances and will finally bring “right-balance” or justice to all things.
The LORD sits enthroned forever;
Psalm 9:8-9
setting up a throne for judgment.
God judges the world with justice;
and governs the peoples with equity.
I think these readings are difficult to pray with, but it’s worth a try. How we respond to challenge in our personal circumstances – and even evil in the world at large – depends a lot on how we view God’s Presence in our lives. Both Joel and the psalmist ask us to hold fast to our confidence in God.
Praying with these readings may provoke questions like this for us: Do I believe God’s justice and mercy truly will prevail in Creation? And how will I help bring about this holy “equity”?
Poetry: Faith is the Pierless Bridge – Emily Dickinson
Faith is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not
Too slender for the eye
It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side
It joins behind the Veil
To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.
Music: Bridge Over Troubled Waters – Simon and Garfunkel
Lavish Mercy 