Read: Psalm 3

But you, O Lord, are a shield around me…
-Psalm 3:3

I am fortunate. I have not known many enemies. Unlike the psalmist, I don’t know of anyone who is/was out to kill me. Oh sure, I was a cop and I’ve been shot at (and missed), but I don’t believe the poor soul who was mentally distraught was out to get me. He was in too much pain to know what he was doing. No, I’ve had adversaries and antagonists over the years, but none I would count as enemies (even if they counted me one).

What I have found corrosive isn’t being on an enemy’s hit-list, but being ignored, abandoned, or counted as nothing. That’s where I have found the fires of hell licking me every now and again. God says I am of value – that each of us is of value – but to be zilch in the eyes of another is too painful to bear. The psalmist knows that, and while the warrior acknowledges the value and protection of a shield, what I find of greater comfort is the image of God wrapping arms around me. An embrace is God’s shield. I confess I’m not much into hugs, but during this time of Pandemic distancing, God knows I’ve missed hugs terribly much, especially when I hurt.

My pain is relieved when I perceive the psalmist’s prayer for a shield is a cry for a hug. Hugs are healing touches and blessed.

God, you know the pain each of us feels, the fear each of us harbors. Assure us of your love. Wrap us in the arms of your love. Send us arms to wrap us tight and make us right; be our shield and our delight. Amen.
-The Rev. Keith Axberg

Read: Psalms 120-121

I look up to the hills, but where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
-Psalm 121:1-2

These two psalms are among the Psalms of Ascent that may have been used liturgically as people approached the temple in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the city on a hill, was always approached by going up. “Going up” bears metaphorical meaning as well. One ascends to meet God on high. One ascends into greater capacity for faithfulness to the covenant. One ascends into more compassionate expression of virtue. Both of these psalms presume that one begins below, the place of lament, and expresses a desire to ascend.

In the first one, the psalmist finds himself among untruthful people. How can one trust those who do not deal in truth? Deception unravels the social structures that provide security, it is a way of waging war. The psalmist foresees God’s punishment accurately, as the fruit of their own untrustworthy labors. They will go to war and pay the price. He, however, wants peace. One can imagine the psalmist trusting that he, too, will reap the fruits of his labor: peace.

The second psalm begins outside the city gates, looking up toward Jerusalem. The psalmist stands outside, among the defiled and defiling nations, yet he puts his trust in the Lord, the one “who made heaven and earth,”—not Baal, the god of thunder, rain, and fertility, or any of the other Canaanite gods to which surrounding hills had been sacred. He takes his comfort and security in the God worshipped on the holy temple mount.

In today’s world there is a lot of talk, but is it trustworthy? Does it build trust or tear it down? Does it look to the true source of truth, or the hundred lesser gods of our day? We, too, stand in a place we would rather ascend out of. The psalmists name our place because they share it. We can share their hope as well. We, too, can “strive for justice and peace” as our Baptismal Covenant says, knowing that as we do so, God, the ever-vigilant one who never sleeps, who is not caught off guard by untruth or violence, will guard us as we come and go, “both now and forever.”

Loving God, we live in a world full of deceit and war. Shine the truth of your love as a beacon on a hill to guide us up the path to where your beloved community lives in truth and peace. Amen.
-The Rev. Paul Moore

Read: Psalm 69

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.
-Psalm 69:1-2

Three of the four years I was in high school, I went whitewater rafting on the South Fork of the American River with my parents and twin brother. There were so-called “swimmer’s rapids” where you could jump out and float the river, and it was an interesting experience. You jumped into cold water and were then carried down the river at a decent clip while the raft followed nearby. Your life vest held you up, and it was the closest I have ever felt to being completely weightless.

I did have one experience of falling out of the raft, and that was a bit different. We hit a rapid and I had not braced myself correctly, so I tipped out of the raft. I remember going under and fighting to get myself into position to get back to the raft. I knew that if I didn’t fight, bad things could happen. One of the men in the boat pulled me back in and all was well, but it was still a frightening few minutes.

That experience of tipping out of the raft and going under is what comes to mind in the first two verses of this psalm. While I did not have the problem of being mired in something, the water sweeping over me was very fast, and I imagine it would be similar to being swept away by floodwaters. I can feel the psalmist’s anxiety and fear and they ponder being swept under by everything going on. It is one of those cases when the only way they were going to survive was to trust that the Lord would pull them out of the turbulent metaphorical waters… just as I was plucked out of the American River.

Comfort us, Lord, when the waters are rising around us and we fear being swept away. You made the waters to flow the way they do, so bring us through the flood. Amen.
-Jen McCabe

Read: Psalm 86

The arrogant rise up against me, O God, and a band of violent men seeks my life; they have not set you before their eyes.
-Psalm 86:14

No, it’s not just paranoia. Think of the first children: Abel really did find favor with God, and Cain did kill him.
We are living through a difficult time politically. Especially notable is the inability for the people of this country and our elected leaders to deal with each other with respect and a willingness to cooperate. Rather than that, we seem to have grievances: you are my enemy and you treat me badly/unfairly/dishonestly!

Seeing others as “enemies” and oneself as victims of those enemies – has it always been thus? And if so, how are people of faith supposed to deal with that?

The psalmist in Psalm 86 wants us to know that there are really bad people out there and they are out to get him. They are arrogant. Violent. Have not set God before their eyes.

So how do we see those “others?” Are they the problem? Are we the reasonable ones who are just seeking God’s will? Confession? It’s oh so much easier to confess the sins/faults/damage of others than it is to confess the sins of oneself. In fact, telling about the evildoers seems to be pretty satisfying to our psalmist. I know I fall into a similar rut of grievance and blame all too often.

The “I” of the psalm establishes himself as the innocent victim. Then he enlists God’s help with a litany of all that he is doing to be on God’s side. Contrast those evildoers with myself, suggests our psalmist. “I am faithful.” “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.” “I will thank you, O LORD my God, and I will walk in your truth.”

And without hesitation, the psalmist praises God’s qualities: good, forgiving, great, gracious, full of compassion, full of kindness and truth.

God is all that. I am not; perhaps even you are not. Our great teacher once told us to remove the log from our own eye before we fret with someone else’s eye splinter.

Lord, the affairs of humankind seem difficult. We need your saving actions to open us up and draw us into your purposes and dreams. Amen.
-Tom Worrell

Read: Psalm 35

For they do not speak peace, but they conceive deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
-Psalm 35:20

One of the hard parts about living in small Midwestern towns is the rumor mill. Everyone knows everyone else’s business, and I would hear things about me that were not even close to being true. For example, I was at the grocery store while six months pregnant, and my shirt rose an inch when I reached for something. Apparently, an inch of my baby belly was visible, and one of my former husband’s parishioners saw me. They mentioned it to one of our church treasurers, and the treasurer called my former husband to accuse me of flashing the parishioner who saw me.

…

Um, excuse me? Have they met me?!?!? There are nuns that show more skin than I do on a regular basis, and I don’t think I owned a dress, skirt, pair of pants, or shorts shorter than knee-length at that time. When I told my boss, she fell off her chair laughing. Our ELCA bishop thought it was the funniest thing ever, as did pretty much everyone who was told what the treasurer had said. Still, I was (and still am) irritated that she (the treasurer) tried to ruin my reputation in the community maliciously.
I can really understand the psalmist’s pain and why he is calling for God to judge those who are hurting them. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can be really stinging to me. I have to remind myself that nothing anyone can say to me or stay about me can diminish my worth in God’s eyes, and God’s opinion of me is the only one that matters.

In those times when words wound our spirit, be present with us, Lord, and remind us that You created us to be worthy of dignity and respect. Amen.
-Jen McCabe

Read: Psalm 5

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
-Psalm 5:11

Years ago, a manager to whom I reported in my Silicon Valley job told me something that seemed odd at the time. “Your problem is that you don’t have any enemies,” he said. While I’ll certainly cop to the charge that my insecurities have tended to make me a “people pleaser,” I also have to confess that never in my life have I held the conviction that anyone ever woke up in the morning with the sole intent of making my life miserable. As a consequence, I have a difficult time relating to the psalmist’s frequent diatribes against their perceived foes. Still, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they ain’t out to get you — I’ve just never believed that anyone who thought ill of me was a greater risk to my spiritual well-being than my own desire for retribution.

Lord, in knowing that “you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness,” and that “the arrogant cannot stand in your presence,” help me be ever mindful of the enemy that lurks within, and that my best protection remains, as the psalmist sings, “the shield of your righteousness.” Amen.
-Michael Boss