Psalms 59-61

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POST XXII OF LX

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The Book of Common Prayer (1979) includes a plan for reading the Book of Psalms in morning and evening installments for 30 days.  I am therefore blogging through the Psalms in 60 posts.

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 226

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Psalm 60 affirms the idea that angering God leads to abandonment by God.  The text also agrees that such divine action is not permanent.  Psalm 60 has two distinct and related sections; the second answers the first.

Likewise, Psalm 61 has two sections, but they seem to have little to do with each other.  The first part is an individual petition to God.  The author affirms that God has been his refuge and seeks to remain close to God.  The second section is a prayer that God will extend the life of the monarch.

Psalms 60 and 61 mention enemies.  So does Psalm 59, which, unfortunately, includes a request for divine vengeance.  Psalm 59 also features a motif commonplace in the Book of Psalms:  dehumanizing the enemies.  They are not human beings with complexities and inherent dignity, according to the text; no, they are like growling dogs who roam the city in search of food.  The depiction of one’s enemies (often national ones) is familiar to me, a student of history.  I think immediately of propaganda on all sides during World Wars I and II, for example.

Our enemies might be truly perfidious.  Or perhaps the reality of the situation might be nuanced.  Either way, our foes are, like us, human beings.  They and we stand before God, in whom dwell both judgment and mercy, and whose wisdom exceeds ours by far.  Our foes today might become our friends, or at least allies, eventually.  And maybe we, not they, are in the wrong.  God, in infinite wisdom, knows the truth.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 11, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF NEOCAESAREA; AND SAINT ALEXANDER OF COMANA “THE CHARCOAL BURNER,” ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR AND BISHOP OF COMANA, PONTUS

THE FEAST OF AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT CLARE OF ASSISI, FOUNDER OF THE POOR CLARES

THE FEAST OF MATTHIAS LOY, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, EDUCATOR, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR; AND CONRAD HERMANN LOUIS SCHUETTE, GERMAN-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, EDUCATOR, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

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