Daily Lectio: Saturday morning, May 30

Lovely Saturday mornings….the only day of the week that seems to have breathing room in the morning…time to sit and ponder with no impending appointment…

So, this morning, time to sit with Psalm 68.  This is another very unfamiliar one for me.  With some of the psalms, I think to myself, “Has this always been in here?”  So foreign, and that’s sad…

68 is another of the deliverance psalms, as I call them more and more.  Psalms that cry out for deliverance from the foe, from oppression, from turmoil.  “Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered…” (BCP)

But when I look closely, I see that it is also a psalm of providence, of God’s providing for those in need.

“You sent a gracious rain, O God, upon your inheritance.”

“Your people found their home in it;

in your goodness, O God, you have made provision

for the poor.” (BCP)

The God described in 68 is an active, dynamic, present God…One who leads the people, provides for them, protects them…

Yet, is not some overlord.  There was one little image that really hooked me this morning in my Lectio.

There, in verses 15 and 16,

“O mighty mountain, mountain of

Bashan;

O many-peaked mountain,

mountain of Bashan!

Why do you look with envy,

O many-peaked mountain,

at the mount that God desired

for his abode,

where the Lord will reside

forever?” (NRSV)

This little image hooked me.  It’s an image of the unexpected, of God choosing a place to dwell based on divine intent, not on human perceptions of what is most grand, might, or appropriate.  It fits with the whole image of 68, of God being a protector but not an overlord, of God leading chariots into battle and also providing rain and shelter.  It reminds me of the stories of the Israelites wanting to build God a mighty palace, but God resisting and wanting the portable tabernacle.

God’s desires confound us it seems…surpass our expectations in many ways and circumvent them in others!  And it does me good to reflect on this dynamic God at work in the world today…

S+