Psalms 62-64

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POST XXIII 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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Men of lowly birth are mere vapor,

those of high degree a delusion.

On scales they are lighter than leaves,

together lighter than vapor.

–Psalm 62:10, Mitchell J. Dahood translation

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Men are mere breath;

mortals, illusion;

placed on a scale all together,

they weigh even less than a breath.

–Psalm 62:10, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

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God, however, is substantial.

Psalms 62, 63, and 64 express confidence in God.  Psalm 63, set in the Israelite desert, brings that principle home in a concrete way.  There is a good reason that, for thousands of years, many holy men and women have tested their piety and trained themselves to rely on God in deserts.

Psalms 63 and 64 mention the fates of enemies.  Whereas Psalm 63 expresses a desire for divine vengeance–by experiencing gutting with a sword and becoming food for jackals, Psalm 64 simply acknowledges that people will reap what they sow.  Those who set down the path of righteousness are not secure from all suffering, but they do walk with God.  Those who trod a different trail–the one to destruction–will meet with the predictable fate.  This is a cause for mourning, not rejoicing.  One should desire that such people will repent and turn to God, for their benefit and that of others, and to the joy of God.  One cannot make those kinds of decisions for others, however.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 12, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THADDEUS STEVENS, U.S. ABOLITIONIST, CONGRESSMAN, AND WITNESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

THE FEAST OF SARAH FLOWER ADAMS, ENGLISH UNITARIAN HYMN WRITER; AND HER SISTER, ELIZA FLOWER, ENGLISH UNITARIAN COMPOSER

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