Psalm 82

Proper 10 (15) - Year C
Proper 15 (20) - Year C


Psalm 82 or Psalm 25:1-10

82:5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk around in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

25:5 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.

These fifth verses give us the interesting interplay between "they" and "me". In so doing they bring us back to questions of the neighbor and to the journey of faith. So easy it is to blame them and to recognize we, at least, are on the right path even if we haven't yet arrived.

What way keeps the foundations secure? For those focusing on ourselves going in "the right" direction, the issue is mercy and love. For those focusing on others headed in "the wrong" direction, it is justice. Often times we conflate all this into one big mishmash of mercylovejustice, applying mercy where justice is needed and justice where love is to shine through.

A part of the hard work we have before us is that of knowing that Psalm 25 is Psalm 25 and Psalm 82 is Psalm 82. A key role of the prophetic life is that of clarity, clarity, clarity. In our line of work this is as much a truism as is location, location, location.

May we know what we don't know and test faith in the midst of fear and trembling.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/july2004.html

 


 

Psalm 82 or Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. (80)

Give justice, maintain the right, rescue the weak! (82)

We so often act as though there were some cosmic plan that requires nothing of us. Let's all pray that G*D will take care of things and G*D will take care of things. So we stumble forward searching for meaning in the details of experience and losing track of the larger picture that includes our involvement in life.

Want restoration? Give justice.

Want G*D's face to shine? Maintain the right.

Want salvation? Rescue the weak.

Everyone knows this but it is difficult to understand. Everyone want the first part without the second part. We look to G*D without doing what we can to become G*D.

Restore the shine of salvation -- judge right the weak.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/august2004.html

 


 

Psalm 82 or Psalm 25:1-10

What a scene -- G*D enters a divine council after having seen how Amos responded to his call and, having learned, stands to prophecy, "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?"

That divine council -- ours -- after all, we are there. In such instances, divinity blinds. Time and time again it is necessary to be called out, to see again the weak, etc.

So, we, too, might call out, "Do not remember my past judgments, according to steadfast love may I judge anew and break my own precedent."

It is this feedback loop of re-judging that instructs us. No feedback loop, no G*D.

- - -

hooray
I am divine
a most high child

woe
I am mortal
fallen into death

now
rise up
with healing

healer
wounded
wounded healer

lift
weal and woe
and every soul

give
justice needed
not justice achievable

move
between poles
holding both souls

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html


 

Psalm 82 or Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19

An old conundrum goes -- Give me another chance and I'll change : Let me see you have changed and I'll give you another chance. Which chicken and which egg came first? Which will come next?

This debate continues around any given referendum, extension of "rights", or decision to war. Isolationists battle interventionist. Does a creed from the past trump any new opportunity in the present?

So, G*D, grant us one more get-out-of-jail-free card, we'll respond to your expansive love. So, G*D, hold our feet to the fire, we'll respond to your judgment of death.

- - -

restoration comes
in every size and flavor

this is sufficient to link
restoration with mystery

the question isn't
what will bring restoration

the question is
what ethically won't

at what point do we destroy
restoration to restore it

that size and that flavor
are ungainly and revolting

pray for honorable restoration
and then pass it on

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

 


 

We have heard of a Mercy Inn and a Plumb Line. We now hear about G*D holding judgment, doing justice. This is the result of a plumb line of mercy that was unused, set aside for a more pressing issue, and eventually justice was needed to rectify the results of folks being unkind, unmerciful.

If you don't want to face judgment, justice for having gone awry, then show mercy, no matter what the provocation to express something else. Mercy is preemptive Justice. Mercy obviates the need for justice.

If you are among the G*Ds, then your call is to exemplify Mercy so that Justice need not be brought to bear. In the long run Mercy is the most efficient behavior, even when dealing with the unmerciful. Without Mercy non-violent resistance is simply a variation on violence and a will to power.

The longer I sit with this, the more untenable Mercy alone is. Second thoughts arise by the dozens, rationalizations for unMerciful behavior leap into being from nowhere, and satisfaction of revenge is very strong.

Mercy needs a community able to consistently remember Mercy as an option, a multitude of spiritual disciplines, and all the fruits of the spirit to be engaged together. Even then, in our world, Mercy is miraculous in its presence and effect.

Rise up, O you G*D, be merciful.

- - - - - - -

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."
-Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/07/psalm-82.html