Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Scripture for the Day
Psalm 119:121-128

I have done what is just and right;

do not leave me to my oppressors.
Guarantee your servant’s well-being;
do not let the godless oppress me.
My eyes fail from watching for your salvation,
and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.
Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love,
and teach me your statutes.
I am your servant; give me understanding,
so that I may know your decrees.
It is time for the Lord to act,
for your law has been broken.
Truly I love your commandments
more than gold, more than fine gold.
Truly I direct my steps by all your precepts;
I hate every false way.

If you’ve been reading or praying along with the lectionary lately, you’ve had a long time to dwell in Psalm 119! Each day for several weeks, the lectionary has given us just a few of the psalm’s 176 verses. It’s fitting to sit for a while with this long song, since it is a poem about knowing God’s law deeply, dwelling in God’s commandments, and taking them to heart. As I read this psalm chunk by chunk, I’m struck by repeating themes in the psalmist’s prayer. The psalmist praises God and the righteousness of God’s law. S/he asks for help against forces of evil and oppression. The psalmist wonders when God’s justice will actually be visible, naming how hard it is to wait for things that have not yet happened, like God’s promised re-ordering of the world. And the psalmist seems to be renewed for the work ahead and reaffirms that God’s ways are good.

Today’s section of Psalm 119 expresses a lot of what I have been feeling. In the course of a day (or an hour!):

I grow weary from seeing so many things that are just awful in the world and I feel small and powerless to change such big violence and oppression and pain (verse 123: “My eyes fail from watching for your salvation, and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise”);

• I ask that God would help me follow (verse 125: “I am your servant; give me understanding, so that I may know your decrees”);

• I get impatient and wonder (a lot) when God’s justice and reconciliation will come (verse 126: “It is time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken”);

• I praise and give thanks to God (verse 127: “Truly I love your commandments more than gold”); and

• I remember that the work of justice is long, that God has called us to it, and that God is with us as we work (verse 128: “I [will] direct my steps by all your precepts, [and] hate every false way”).

In Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Bible—The Message—two of these verses get a bit closer to the combination of fatigue and indignation many of us are experiencing now:
“I can’t keep my eyes open any longer, waiting for you to keep your promise to set everything right (v. 123) …. It’s time to act, God; they’ve made a shambles of your revelation! (v. 126).”

The pray-er isn’t just weary, but tired in a deep and overpowering way, the kind of tired where you can’t keep your eyes open. The vigil of watching for God to set the world right has lasted so long that the psalmist’s eyes are closing. So it’s time for God to do something! Because God’s good revelation is being trampled and forgotten.

As we pray this psalm, we remember that we’re not the first to feel many things at once or to cry out with praise, weariness, impatience, and hope to God. This is by no means the first time in history marked by division and oppression. It isn’t the first time God’s people have looked hard and long for deliverance and not the first time we have cried to God to intervene—act now, God! Your law has been broken! Your weary world is tired of waiting, tired of seeing the wicked prosper.

As I write this, the deaths of Rev. C.T. Vivian and Congressman John Lewis are still (rightly) in the news. Some are remembering moments when they met or were inspired by those courageous leaders. Some are learning about how Vivian, Lewis, and others watched and waited for God’s justice, how they stood in the face of those who dishonored God’s creation even when their bodies were broken and weary, and how they hoped in God’s promises all the while.

As we pray this psalm, we root ourselves again in God’s law, and remember that we stand on the shoulders of countless ancestors in faith who took God’s law to heart, called to God from places of fatigue and despair, and worked toward the fulfillment of God’s commands anyway. May we persevere, too. Amen.