Saying a Psalm Aloud – Psalm 31

A text – Psalm 31:9-16

⁹ Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.
¹⁰ For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.

¹¹ I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
¹² I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
¹³ For I hear the whispering of many— terror all around!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.

¹⁴ But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
¹⁵ My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
¹⁶ Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.

A reflection:

The psalmist is calling upon the Lord for rescue and deliverance. And whatever has put him into his predicament, he knows it is beyond his power to control. He places his body and his soul, his whole story, into God’s hands. And why? Because he trusts in God. Because he has a God. And in his despair he wants to feel God’s face shine upon him.

When we go about our daily lives, we probably don’t think about our God very much. We believe God exists, and we may even believe God loves us, but in our daily lives we don’t think God is very involved. We believe, like most Americans, that God helps those who help themselves, and so we believe it is our duty to get things done. Some theologians, describing this way of being with God call it “practical atheism.” It’s kind of a shocking label, until you really watch yourself during a typical day and realize that you don’t think God is up to anything much, on your behalf or anyone else’s.

It might be that the psalmist here had been going about his life getting things done and suddenly ran into trouble that was beyond his power to fix. And he’s feeling how deep and difficult his problem is – affecting his health, his neighbors and friends and enemies, and his very future.  If the psalmist is David, he had reason to be afraid. God had anointed David to be the new king, but the old king, Saul, had mental illness that kept him hanging onto the throne and attempting to assassinate anyone who would take it from him. He WAS plotting against David’s life. David can see no way out of his dilemma. And so he throws himself on the mercy and strength of God for protection.

It takes dire circumstances sometimes for us humans to rely on God, doesn’t it? What if, in our quieter moments this weekend, we just relied on God’s mercy and strength and, really meaning it, we recited these verses aloud to God?

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being strong when we are not. Thank you for loving us even when we forget you during our daily lives. Help us to pray, to say psalms, to rely on you more than we now do, so that our relationship with you grows strong. Amen.