Psalm 98

Christmas Eve/Day - Years A, B, C
Easter Vigil - Years A, B, C
Easter 6 - Year B
Proper 27 (32) - Year C
Proper 28 (33) - Year C

The word “victory” shows up three times in the NRSV in the first three verses. In our current ears this sets us up to hear this psalm militarily, not relationally.

Imagine what some word substitutions for “victory” could do for us. First they would put us in a better position to hear the action of G*D at the end of the psalm to be the health of the whole system of creation. Victory doesn’t really get us to that spot.

Here then are some words that we might substitute for “victory”:

     - partnership
     - love
     - friendship
     - joy
     - relationship

The whole “victory” approach leads us to the dead-ends of “Truth” with a capital “T”, Orthodoxy that emphasizes a style of reporting a G*D experience rather than the experience itself, and Creeds that purport to be the last creed needed because it is the best we can do today.

If joy is to be expressed because of G*D’s presence, it needs something larger than a victory that we know will always be ephemeral, partial, and a set up to more conflict.

- - - - - - -

sing a new song
G*D remembered!
hooray
finally

sing a new song
help G*D remember!
woe
now

sing a new song
past the past
beyond tomorrow
sing

 

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

 

 

Obviously people have made judgments within the context of the everyday life of the world that are not right (much less righteous) or equitable (beyond fair). That has been your experience and my experience of those we have judged and the experience of those who have judged against us.

Here, indeed, is the realm of a new song. If there is anything that needs revival it is our sense of righteousness (usually too small) and equity (usually too biased toward one particular side or another).

If you can't yet see the words or put them to music, it is still possible to hum. It would be good here to remember a literal song - "How can I keep from singing!" Singing is a progressive Christian act of resistance and remembering the direction of our life - that G*D's Commonwealth come in the present as it is in eternity.

Here are some places for, "How Can I Keep from Singing":
1. religious version
2a. secular version - written
2b. secular version - tune
3. Commitment story

note: the religious/secular division is false

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/may2003.html

 

 

A marvelous thing has been revealed.

A new beginning.

A marvelous presence is coming.

We are still between the revealed and the coming. Jesus' birth both does and does not settle all matters in their particulars. Advent's dual focus has not been resolved by Christmas. We are still remembering and anticipating.

Even though still between times, this is still a marvelous time to let rejoicing loose. In but a few ticks of time we will also need to let our grieving loose. For now, dive into the powerlessness of rejoicing that has no agenda but to echo the far off hymn, "joy to all".

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/december2004.html

 

 

Psalm 98 or Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 or Psalm 17:1-9

Elections often turn on the wrong questions. Sometimes those questions are simply missed and sometimes they are deliberately miscast if raised. The Psalms talk less about the election process and look to a desired end, regardless of who is elected.

A key criterion for leaders behavior and systems they support, according to the Psalmists, is intimately tied up with justice. We will see how leaders newly elected, leaders staying in their position, and leaders yet to be will actually live up to this high calling.

17:1 - Hear a just cause (will our leaders listen?)
17:2 - let your eyes see the right (will our leaders look?)
17:4 - avoid the ways of the violent (whether preemptive or "just"?)
17:8 - guard (the measure of a just society is how the poor are treated)
98:3 - remember steadfast love and faithfulness (do it, don't just talk it)
98:4 - break forth into joyous song (for all the above and the following)
98:9 - GOD is present to judge righteousness and equity (no other political entity is up to this standard)
145:7 - glory and wonder come from abundant goodness and righteousness
145:8-9 - steadfast love and compassion measure grace and mercy
145:14 - the falling are upheld, the bowed down are raised
145:15 - the hungry are fed
145:17 - justice and kindness are GOD's right and left hands
145:20 - love grows to the stars of the sky, wickedness shrivels from the land of the living
145:21 - justice leads to blessing, forever and ever.

We are making our bed and we will lie in it. What we sow, so shall we reap. The option of justice is present. The election has not resolved these issues. Let us continue to live with faith that justice will be served; not arrogance and revenge, no matter how well disguised.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/november2004.html

 

 

Psalm 98 or Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 or Psalm 17:1-9

When all is said and done a judgment will be made on the basis of righteousness (right living choices amid a sinister world) and equity (a justified humility).

And we keep acting as though such a judgment will be made on the basis of our strength, our keeping particular traditions, our belief structure or particular language, etc.

Until we can get our head around what might reasonably be on the test and stop assuming that the test we want will be the test we will get, our expectations play contrarily against a coming standard. It is time to figure out what the basics of life are rather than play to our preferences.

- - -

knowing we are out of sync
with our long-term good
because the short-term goodies
are so tasty

we finally appeal
that we might be an apple
given to our test-giver teacher
and exempted from the pop quiz

rather than simply taking the test
we spend our time avoiding
a study of the subject at hand
living now and trusting ever

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

 

Psalm 98 or Isaiah 12

We are often more ready to sing a new song or to say thanks after there has been some evidence of a significant change or freedom where before there was only resignation and restriction.

Before that we are in the land of hope and faith and love, but quietly so. Perhaps we can hum a line, but a full-throated song or statement simply seems out of place.

So what are you using as evidence that allows you to sing out. Are you fortunate enough to have practiced singing thanks so you can do it at the drop of a hat or in the face of even worse disaster than you have so far known? Are you one who needs piles and piles of evidence, and even then doubt it will hold, and so, at best, can whisper a bit? Some of these differences among us can be attributed to personality, experiences, and expectations. Some goes beyond any explanation.

May the day be soon upon us when we can agree and participate in the singing of praise, the avowal of transformation.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/november2004.html

 

 

Psalm 98 or Isaiah 12

"You will say in that day: Give thanks…."

Do you trust that day will come? If so why not give thanks now as well as then?

Trust and thanks are antidotes to fear. Trust and thanks are rope and winch lowering and raising a bucket of joy into the wells (plural) of salvation. Trust and thanks free us from the control of anger and fear of anger.

In preparation for a focus on thanks-giving and thanks-living it might be helpful to focus on its twin of trust. Trust lays the groundwork for the courage it takes to sing a new song in an old situation. Trust breaks fear's grip. Trust is another way of spelling salvation from that which looms over us and another way of spelling health or wholeness pulling us past any rough spot we face.

- - -

I give thanks
you – give thanks!

so we move
from experience
to rote requirements

forgetting
my thanks is mine
forgetting
your thanks is yours

thanks becomes a technique
we apply to intolerable situations
as though going through this motion
we will change the unspeakable
from fearful to our advantage

starting with thanks
we can go anywhere
with strengthened trust
we are truly at home
wherever we are
and whenever

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

 

Psalm 98 / Psalm 96 / Psalm 97

Sing to the Lord a new song: Judgment is grounded in equity, righteousness, and truth. (96)

Sing to the Lord an old song: God loves, guards, rescues. (97)

Sing to the Lord a new song: Remembered steadfast love and faithfulness. (98)

If you had to embody one of these songs, which would come first to your lips? This is almost a personality test and it doesn't make any difference whether that is a gift hard-wired or learned through experience.

Are you into

- judgment on what has already happened?

- being proactive in peace and justice ministries?

- living as you would have the future become?

- - -

Thomas (Reader)

How about:

Sing to God, for God,
the very song
the only song
that only you can sing
the song that only your voice can carry,
the song that only your heart and mind and spirit can dream of.

What if all else
is nothing more or less
than a denial of God?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/december2005.html

 

 

Psalm 98
Acts 10:44-48
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17

Completed joy is something yearned for and yet resisted in light of the joy of the journey.

Conquering joy is something we know all too much about. It is the thrill of victory with nary a trace of the agony of defeat. An impulse to power and connecting that with joy excuses all too many acts of violence, including that preeminent one of war.

Righteous joy conditions us to a legal approach to living and sharing. Judgment and equity, to be joyful, must end up on our side. Any bias toward the poor can be shredded by an appeal to righteous living as evidenced by a claim to joy through property, status, or any other hierarchical system.

Ecstatic joy brings us full circle when we use it as a measuring rod for completedness.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/may2006.html

 

 

Psalm 98
Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12)
John 1:1-14

Sing! Rejoice!

G*D has done marvelous things
G*D is expressing steadfast love and faithfulness
G*D will act with righteousness and equity

These three can be present simultaneously and yet be experienced sequentially. These can mark stages of faith in G*D, as well as in ourselves. It is not contradictory or heresy to either conflate or sequence these qualities.

For this day we conflate. We see peace running over the mountains, already accomplished. We see the feet of peace in the footprints of prophets - imprints of G*D's very being. This word of peace (grace and truth) yet stands against every attempt at diminishment.

We see the persistence of light, of memory of good creation, of anticipation of transformation of packets of light into waves of light and from that energy to the matter of our lives. We see the dynamism of the present between "in the beginning" and "they all wear out" as selection and being selected work on each other.

We see the long-ago speaking of G*D shine above and in darkened streets of potential. Creation is seen in re-creation.

A child is born! Every child born, bears G*D's imprint. How various is G*D! How versatile is G*D! Of course a manger holds G*D. Of course both shepherd and magi can see G*D in a manger. Of course you are an imprint of G*D. Of course we can see G*D in each other.

- - -

in the beginning was a word
today word becomes flesh
tomorrow flesh becomes a new beginning

every word, flesh, beginning
is a celebration and a mourning
as each opens new worlds
and closes others

our call from long ago
and unto eons
through birthing and birthing
is to ascend
to enflesh word
to begin with flesh
to speak a new beginning
is to move on
past past words
past current flesh passing away
past even a new beginning
is to be between
a lens for ancestors and descendants
to better see one another
and be at peace

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

 

 

Psalm 98
Acts 10:44-48
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17

While Peter spoke - something beyond words came to folks. There was an active crossing of boundaries - words restricting us from one another were left behind. Acknowledgment of our commonness was made. Whenever such boundaries between people are reduced it is a time to confirm such changes.

Baptism is an act of affirmation. Re-membering a Baptism re-minds us of our connection beyond tribal connection re-binding us to a common journey expressed in a multitude of keys and tempos - a seeming babble of tongues only understood in acting out a movement from servant to friend (others and ourselves).

These moments always come as a surprise, while something else is going on, and as a shift in expected outcome. Here we move from a specific witness to a universal one, from a known God to an unknown.

- - -

sing a new song
G*D remembered!
hooray
finally

sing a new song
help G*D remember!
woe
now

sing a new song
past the past
beyond tomorrow
sing

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

 

The word "victory" shows up three times in the NRSV in the first three verses. In our current ears this sets us up to hear this psalm militarily, not relationally.

Imagine what some word substitutions for "victory" could do for us. First they would put us in a better position to hear the action of G*D at end of the psalm to be the healthy, positives of righteousness and equity. Victory doesn't really get us to that spot.

Here then are some words that we might substitute for "victory":
     - partnership
     - love
     - friendship
     - joy
     - relationship

The whole "victory" approach leads us to the dead-ends of "Truth" with a capital "T", Orthodoxy that emphasizes style of reporting a G*D experience rather than the experience itself, and Creeds that purport to be the last creed needed because it is the best we can do today.

If joy is to be expressed because of the presence of G*D, it needs something larger than a victory that we know will always be ephemeral, partial, and the set up to more conflict.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

 

 

Here is a most marvelous thing: G*D has remembered to steadfastly love and to be faithful.

While these two characteristics are closely aligned and often in parallel with one another, it is important to know that they have significant differences. For instance, there are numerous examples of G*D (and thus creatures) having been steadfast in love while turning a back. Likewise G*D has stood by folks even while cursing them.

In this season of light with Star and Candles and Yule Log we rejoice whenever and wherever we see in others or ourself a remembrance of steadfast love and faithfulnees joined again.

Victory here is not in vindication, but in a new beginning, a resynthesis of steadfast love andfaithfulness. May you be a part of such in your particulars.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/12/psalm-98.html

 

 

To judge is to engage in discernment.

Where is righteousness?

Where is equity?

When will judgment take place? Well, now and now and now again.

Want to be well judged? Judge well where righteousness and equity might be revealed and reveal them through your actions.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/05/psalm-98.html

 

 

Perhaps not, “O sing to the Lord a new song”, as much as, “G*D sings a new song”.

G*D sings a new song, injecting a newness into expected fate.
G*D is intentional in this, working with what is.
Though begun quietly enough, this song is increasingly sung.
Life, no matter how held in abeyance, goes on again.
Steadfast love and steady trust have set a forward-leaning heartbeat.
Joy breaks free from distance and bursts onward.
With musical instrument and nature’s infinite variety,
Equity’s theme becomes transcendent.

Note: G*D is not G*D without our partnership and so we, too, sing a new song.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/12/psalm-98.html

 

 

And so we begin to hum a new song. A bit of meter, a heard tonality comes around. No words but music begins. Sort of like the sea with gentle lapping and thumping breakers. Sort of like a misty rain and drenching monsoon. Sort of like a meadow breeze and mountain gale.

A new song will probably mean many shifts. Judgment, even on the basis of righteousness and equity will have to be rethought. The whole atonement business will finally go bankrupt. There are more things that will have to go. What is not so clear is what the results of a new song will be. About all that is sure is that another vigil will be needed when these new shifts grow old and confining. So we are dealing with the latest new song, not a final new song.

See, hope is creeping back in. There might be more after this more. How’d that happen?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/psalm-98-vigil.html