Proper 26 / Pentecost 24 / Ordinary Time 31
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
Your decrees are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.
-- Psalm 119:144
Psalm 119 is the longest of all the psalms and consists of 22 stanzas of eight verses each. Each stanza starts with a letter in the Hebrew alphabet in the fashion of an acrostic poem. The entire poem is an elaborate reflection on the law of God. This verse is the eighteenth stanza and therefore begins with the letter Tisade. It focuses on the righteousness of God as expressed in God's laws.
To distinguish between the way that our society uses the term righteous and the way it is usually intended in scripture, it is helpful to think of righteous meaning right relationships. God stands in right relationship with humanity. God's judgments are for the sake of humanity and their relationship with God. God's rightness in relationship to humanity is an everlasting rightness, and God's law is the truth (Psalm 119:45). This is true even when one's commitment to God's law seems to be met with the hostility of others. "I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts," said the psalmist.
In contrast to our culture that begins to question the commands of God when they are inconvenient or costly, the psalmist was convinced that the righteous or right relationship with God would be achieved by paying attention to God's law. "Trouble and anguish have come upon me, but your commandments are my delight." Rather than assuming some contrast between God's law and God's grace, the psalmist saw the law as an expression of God's grace. He examined the various facets of the law in these 22 reflections in a manner similar to a jeweler examining the various facets of a diamond.
It would be interesting for a person or a congregation to try to compose 22 separate reflections on the law or will of God. What are the various ways that we can understand what it means for us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"?
-- Psalm 119:144
Psalm 119 is the longest of all the psalms and consists of 22 stanzas of eight verses each. Each stanza starts with a letter in the Hebrew alphabet in the fashion of an acrostic poem. The entire poem is an elaborate reflection on the law of God. This verse is the eighteenth stanza and therefore begins with the letter Tisade. It focuses on the righteousness of God as expressed in God's laws.
To distinguish between the way that our society uses the term righteous and the way it is usually intended in scripture, it is helpful to think of righteous meaning right relationships. God stands in right relationship with humanity. God's judgments are for the sake of humanity and their relationship with God. God's rightness in relationship to humanity is an everlasting rightness, and God's law is the truth (Psalm 119:45). This is true even when one's commitment to God's law seems to be met with the hostility of others. "I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts," said the psalmist.
In contrast to our culture that begins to question the commands of God when they are inconvenient or costly, the psalmist was convinced that the righteous or right relationship with God would be achieved by paying attention to God's law. "Trouble and anguish have come upon me, but your commandments are my delight." Rather than assuming some contrast between God's law and God's grace, the psalmist saw the law as an expression of God's grace. He examined the various facets of the law in these 22 reflections in a manner similar to a jeweler examining the various facets of a diamond.
It would be interesting for a person or a congregation to try to compose 22 separate reflections on the law or will of God. What are the various ways that we can understand what it means for us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"?
