ISSL Reflections October 10 2021 Psalm 9:1-12 Post 2

IV.
Let’s start today by going back to the Psalm for another “slow” reading. Let’s not rush over it, thinking we know what it says, but rather take our time to let the words of the Psalmist rest in our minds and spirit.

V.
Psalm 9:1-12 (NRSV)

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

When my enemies turned back,
they stumbled and perished before you.

For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.

You have rebuked the nations, you have destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.

The enemies have vanished in everlasting ruins;
their cities you have rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.

But the Lord sits enthroned forever,
he has established his throne for judgment.

He judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with equity.

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.

And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion.
Declare his deeds among the peoples.

For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

VI.
I closed our time together the other day by calling our attention to what the Psalmist says regarding the “enemies” and the “wicked.

Today let me point to C. S. Lewis’ Reflections the Psalms and some of what he writes about “cursing” in the Pslams,

“… we must not try either to explain them away or to yield for one moment to the idea that, because it comes in the Bible, all this vindictive hatred must somehow be good and pious. We must face both facts squarely. The hatred is there … and also we should be wicked if we in any way condoned or approved it, or (worse still) used it to justify similar passions in ourselves.”
(p 22)

“I found that these maledictions were in one way extremely interesting. For here one saw a feeling we all know only too well. Resentment, expressing itself with perfect freedom, without disguise, without self-consciousness, without shame – as few but children would express it today.” (pp 22-23)

VII.
How do you respond today to Lewis’ remarks?

Do they offend you?

Do they open a door to the spirit and heart of the Psalmist?

Do they in any way lead you to more value or less value what the Psalms presents to us?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}


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