Psalm 51:1-12

Lent 5 - Year B
Proper 13 (18) - Year B


There is a serenity in this Psalm even though it is about the difficult and, some would say, intractable presence of a negative force, a rejection of the light and self-surrender and a denial of suffering.

At some point we become ready for a new relationship with ourself, with G*D, with all. We probably talk about that for some time and mouth the very same words for some considerable piece of time. Then, miraculously, this possibility of the new becomes real for us.

Peterson's translation of verse 10 reads, "God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life." This becomes the sign (verse 12) of our participation in the larger presence of creation's goodness and the gift of being able to again choose. The determination of the negative falls in the face of restoration joy through the healing of receiving forgiveness and gives way to the storehouse of a generous generativity.

In this moment we are ready to re-engage the world, as a wounded healer, as a healed wound-er.

To return to the intention of creation and claim it as available right now is part of the progressive, prophetic tradition. What would be different if this became the lens through which the other texts of the week were seen?

- - -

Lon (Reader)

I find the words of Psalm 51:6 helpful in making a connection, "You desire truth in the inward being, therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart." May we turn ourselves inside out to taste the spin of truth today.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/april2003.html

 


 

Isn't it amazing how a big lie works. Repeat it often enough and its a done deal. Be so extravagant in hyperbole that the unbelievable is judged to be true because you simply wouldn't say such stuff it it weren't true.

While the experience of things going wrong or our decisions and actions going wrong is common enough, this sort of overstated response has helped us buy into unbalancing our lives toward the miserable worm approach.

According to an excurses on the term "heart" in the Psalms [NISB], "Elsewhere in the OT the heart is sometimes devious, perverse (Jer 17:9), and attracted to evil (Gen 6:5; 8:21; Eccl 9:3), but in the psalms there is little mention of such evil inclinations for those oriented to God. There is, rather, belief that the path to God lies within. Only one psalm says, "create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.' (Ps 51:10). By contrast references abound to the righteous who rejoice (Pss 32:11; 64:10; 97:12) and follow justice (Ps 94:15) on account of the disposition of their hearts.

"While we may believe that God wants contrition and repentance, only one psalm hold this prerequisite: 'The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite hearts, O God, you will not despise.' (Psalm 51:17). More usually, God aspires to teach the heart what it needs: (51:6) (86:11) (90:12).

"Wholeness comes as God instructs the heart to know, reorienting understanding as needed, so that the psalmist is confident (49:3)"

It is time to see the goodness of creation in this psalm, not a projection of "original sin". Listen to verse 10 from Eugene Peterson, "God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life."

Now, isn't that refreshing, a penitential lament that helps us see beyond the hyperbole and lets us knowingly smile.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/august2003.html

 


 

Psalm 51:1-12 or Psalm 119:9-16

We cry out for mercy. When asked about a consequence of receiving same it is so easy to start bargaining, talking about works that one will do in response. You give me mercy and I'll do whatever you say. Give me mercy and I'll hedge myself round with the law so I will never have to ask for mercy again.

The more difficult route is to receive mercy and humbly ask for more. This presumes that there is not a static juridical balance point for blind justice. Receiving mercy is to live boldly again, not to hide away in respectability. Receiving mercy is to pass mercy on, not handy one-liner proverbs or aphorisms. Receiving mercy is to see one's secret heart, to know creation is good, and to experience the spirit of the law. Yes, to be law-observant or dutiful is a minor virtue. To live mercy is the better part of virtue.

On this last point check out the whole Charles Wesley Hymn based on Psalm 116 or hear a shortened version with music at CyberHymnal.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html

 


 

Psalm 51:1-12 or 119:9-16
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

G*D: "I have glorified, I will glorify; I have been who I have been, I will be who I will be." And so the bookends are in place.

Self: "I am beloved." And so the content is in place.

Now comes the living with new covenants, steadfast love, abundant mercy, clean hearts, joyful salvation, and a willing spirit. Thrown into these qualities that open us to an expansive future are those elements that narrow us down: strayless commandments, sinless statutes, reverent submission (with cries and tears), and learned obedience.

As we go along there will be requests to take folks to Jesus. What will you show these inquiring hearts and minds first, second, third, finally? Will you start with something from the expanding list or the narrowing list, and why? Will it depend on the nature of the searcher and begin with where they are (if looking for more, start with the expansive), or begin with where they are not (if looking for more, start with the narrower)? Both have their appeal and effectiveness, but they are probably both equally incapable of being turned into a technology to be applied universally.

Will you start with where you are instead of where the questioner is? Here the questions of application may be even more difficult.

Finally, will any of this impact the kind of life you are going to live (which may have an impact on what kind of death you will have)?

- - -

someone is coming to dinner
they wish to see what makes me tick
that of course cannot be seen
it must be planted and replanted
grow unseen and burst dark bonds
a fruit here and there and everywhere
may yet appear in miracle and mystery

fed and encouraged
some choose to dive
into the dark
of a miracle self
invested as fallow seed
until tears of pain
waken it to bloom

a bloom of thunder
echoing from the past
awakening a future
with morning glories
twining upward
drawing beauty with them
here today gone tonight

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html


 

Psalm 51:1-12 or Psalm 78:23-29
2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:13a or Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35

Ah, sweet fleshpots! There is nothing sweeter than vain imaginings that something other than a worthy life will satisfy. We look for that "more" in sex and getting what we want through betrayal. We look for that "more" in "the good old days" (that really weren't). We look for that "more" in controlling unanimity using fear of the "other" to keep us in line. We look for that "more" in fullness of stomach and pocketbook.

The John passage in particular is antidote to the prosperity theology so popular these days. Always looking for one more buck, one more sign, these "theologians" continually miss life-bread in the simplicity of living oriented toward deeper meaning. As long as the Ponzi Scheme of prosperity theology holds, folks will give untold dollars for a food that perishes. In short, short-cuts bring us up short and cut us to the quick. There is no slot-machine God who will consistently pay out - it is all a ploy to pay out a little, because we remember that, in order to suck us in further and further -- all the way to bankruptcy.

- - -

our transgression
needing untold mercy
is the violence
to which we will go
to get a full stomach

no matter how we cover it over
sin is connected with violence
this is its ultimate ending place
little by little we accommodate
and fear fear enough to instill fear

a clean heart restores joy
so lacking in short-cuts
that lead to violence
so focus on joy
sustain a willing joy

joy-gifts touch us
deeper than tokens of fear
joy that sees abundance
all around
reveals the lie of violence

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html


 

Restoration is a good thing. If forgiveness is a way to such, how do our usual nice images of forgiveness match up with a chest-pounding culpa mea, purging draught of hyssop, and crushing of bones?

There is a strain of our tradition that indicates these confessional penances are necessary preludes to forgiveness, that we won't receive said forgiveness if we have not been sufficiently abased.

There is a strain of our tradition that substitutes Jesus' humiliation and passion for our own, paving the way for us to be redeemed and without which restoration would not be possible.

There is also a mystical strand that can visualize no amount of suffering, even Jesus', to atone for the slightest of relational breakages. There is here an ever-present possibility of a translation from wherever we are to someplace incomprehensibly better, beyond what just bringing us back to ground zero could never imagine. Heart change is heart change, not a tit-for-tat game.

Given these broad strokes, it is 2 to 1 against Jesus or followers of that model to prevail in the market-place of ideas. The actions-have-consequences crowd have too difficult a time with the joy of salvation being available beyond the mechanics of some holy economy.

The strains requiring recompense for the past before moving ahead are powerful enough to lead mystics to hide away. It is time for our mystical side to cry out, "Ollie, ollie, oxen free – y'all come, it's time to move on.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

 


 

Jim Taylor's Everyday Psalms begins:
     1      Scrub me clean, Lord.
     Rub me down gently;
     By your touch, show how much you love me;
     Flush away my failures;

I appreciate the tangibleness Jim brings to this Psalm.

Clean hearts are not a magical re-virginization of our intentions, but the soaking and scrubbing clean of very real messiness. This restoration is different than, "Wow! Forgiveness. That was interesting." This is not a matter of getting our head right and our heart will follow.

Looking back at John and Samuel, can you find the tangibleness to bread and consequences? We are not looking so much at a fresh start as a renewal within the journey we have always been on. By the end of the Psalm we are rebuilding and repairing broken walls. Our location is alright, Paradise is a good place to be, but we need to revision condemnation and sacrifice and move from a touch that destroys to a touch that loves deeper than failure.

This is an issue key for Christians, as the Jewish Study Bible notes regarding verse 7:
"So extreme are the psalmist's guilt feelings that he sees himself as sinful even before birth; in other words, he is, by nature, a sinful being. The idea of the inherent sinfulness of humans is rarely expressed in the Bible, except for Gen. 8:21 … (see also Job 25:4). Christianity developed the notion of original sin."

Do we want to return to the tradition of Jesus or continue following the accumulating doctrines of Christian institutionalism? What might yet happen should we dial back the extreme of inappropriate guilt?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

 


 

A question from Soft Edges: “How does one sing of cosmic holiness in a society that seems unable -- or unwilling -- to imagine anything beyond a private and personal God?”

So often this psalm is read as a top-down power arrangement. It is possible to read it differently by adding a choice of focus to the standardized language.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to a steadfast love [of all creation]; according to an abundant mercy [for all creation] let us start again.”

“Restore to me the joy of [making everyone and everything healthy], and [together] sustaining a willing spirit.”
Each of us can cultivate a steadfast and abundant love/mercy relationship with G*D and all creation. This expansion of individual responses to community and creation deepens our individual experience with that of innumerable others.

This psalm, too easily seen as a me-and-G*D moment, needs to remember the end of the Psalm that begins,
“Do good to Zion [to see all working together]; [together let us] rebuild safety within Jerusalem.”

Of course folks can stick to a personalized contriteness, but can be even more energizing to enter into a partnership with G*D rather than just having an appeasement policy. Blessings to you on seeing love and mercy as issues larger than just identified as being for me/we.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/03/psalm-511-12.html

 


 

Where through the Bathsheba incident (see how it can be dismissed as an aberration) would you have David penning this song? Was it his recognition of desire? or after Nathan’s story?

Might this much of a psalm be appropriate whenever a desire pops up, whether for food or sex?

Probably. Unfortunately it leaves things hanging. Does my desirous heart come clean this easily. Probably not.

Blessings on your engagement of the difficultly of real-life behavioral change. Recognition of a needed change is important, but then it takes the work of making a change and not just leaving it to G*D. This is a set-up to have someone to blame for failing to change. And if that someone is G*D, all the better. It is nowhere near as effective to blame an underling when an overlord is available to blame (but it can be a bit more dangerous).

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/08/psalm-511-12.html