When A Psalm Is Full Of Talk About "My Enemies"

 


In the daily prayer lectionary I use, Psalm 56 is appointed for this morning.  It's a prayer to God for relief from "my enemies" (v. 2, 9).

I love Psalms like this!  They remind me to take seriously the destructive force of "my enemies."  My enemies encourage me to turn away from God.  The liturgy for Holy Baptism in Evangelical Lutheran Worship describes them as "the powers of this world that rebel against God" and "the ways of sin that draw you from God."

What are my enemies, those symptoms of my brokenness, my sin?  Self-righteous anger is one, for me.  When I'm self-centered, I become judgmental.  (That's hard for me to resist.  I'm a strong "J" on the Myers-Briggs.)  Arrogance and impatience are two of my major enemies.

How do I carry on the spiritual warfare against my enemies?  With the practices of repentance, return to God, prayer.  The Psalm writer concludes Psalm 56 by naming this: "My vows to you I must perform, O God; / I will render thank offerings to you.  /  For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling,  /  so that I may walk before God in the light of life."

The discipline of daily prayer are "my vows to you [that] I must perform."  It is essential for my daily repentance, my return to God, my reminder that what I would most take for granted -- my waking up, my breathing, this new day of life -- is pure gift from God, undeserved grace.

What joy comes from that!  How much easier it is, then, to resist being sucked in by my enemies.

Andy Ballentine

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For Christ Is Our Peace

Image
  Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Pentecost 9 Lectionary 16 July 21, 2024 Epiphany Lutheran Church Richmond, Virginia Ah! Peace and quiet! When I say that, you know just what I mean, don’t you? Where is your place for peace and quiet? My family spent this past week at the beach. For many, sitting and looking out at the ocean is the ultimate in peace and quiet. For many, others, peace and quiet means being in the woods! (For me, in particular, it’s when I emerge from my tent into the early morning, and I’m the first one up. Boiling water, making coffee, sipping, sitting and listening to the sounds of nature.) Is “peace and quiet” the same as sabbath time? It can be, if it’s a practice with intention: consciously receiving the awareness of God’s blessing of this day, the gift of this day of life. And, to continue the theme of sabbath that we’ve been emphasizing all summer, during Pastor Phillip’s sabbatical, this can happen on a typical day at home, right?
Read more

God's Power, Our Response

Image
  Mark 6:1-13 Pentecost 7 Lectionary 14 July 7, 2024 Epiphany Lutheran Church Richmond, Virginia I have a friend who is fully grown. But, for years, when she visited home, she was a child again. She told me about returning home one year for Thanksgiving and, when she wanted to help with the dinner, her mother and older sisters gave her the job of chopping the celery. That’s it! That had been her job as a child, and it was all they were going to let her do! Have you had the experience: of returning home, an accomplished adult, and being patronized by those who remember you as a child? It looks like that’s what Jesus is experiencing, in this morning’s story in the gospel of Mark. It’s a story that immediately follows the healing stories we read last week. Here’s how it begins: [Jesus] left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. In the gospel
Read more

Where There Is Healing, There Is The Kingdom Of God

Image
  Mark 5:21-43 Pentecost 6 Lectionary 13 June 30, 2024 Epiphany Lutheran Church Richmond, Virginia Whenever we experience healing, there is the kingdom of God. Whenever we receive healing – because healing comes to us, as a gift – there is the kingdom of God. What joy there is in paying attention to this! In recent weeks, in Vacation Bible School and in Sunday morning worship, we’ve been immersed in the fourth chapter of the gospel of Mark. Jesus has been describing the kingdom of God with parables: of seeds growing and producing foliage and fruit, and that it is God who causes any growth to happen. What grace there is in that – that it’s not all up to us! All you and I can do is sow the seeds. How hopeful we can be – because it’s not all up to us! What joy there is in paying attention to this, during daily sabbath time – even if that’s as little as 15 minutes – a gift of time to receive, to become aware of our experiences of God’s presence, of God’s peace
Read more