For the director. Do not destroy. A miktam of David, when Saul sent people to watch his house and kill him.I
Rescue me from my enemies, my God;
lift me out of reach of my foes.Deliver me from evildoers;
from the bloodthirsty save me.They have set an ambush for my life;
the powerful conspire against me.
For no offense or misdeed of mine, LORD,
for no fault they hurry to take up arms.
Come near and see my plight!You, LORD God of hosts, are the God of Israel!
Awake! Punish all the nations.
Have no mercy on these worthless traitors.Each evening they return,
growling like dogs, prowling the city.Their mouths pour out insult;
sharp words are on their lips.
They say: “Who is there to hear?”But you, LORD, laugh at them;
you deride all the nations.My strength, for you I watch;
you, God, are my fortress,
my loving God.II
May God go before me,
and show me my fallen foes.Slay them not, God,
lest they deceive my people.
Shake them by your power;
Lord, our shield, bring them down.For the sinful words of their mouths and lips
let them be caught in their pride.
For the lies they have told under oath
destroy them in anger,
destroy till they are no more.
Then people will know God rules over Jacob,
yes, even to the ends of the earth.Each evening they return,
growling like dogs, prowling the city.They roam about as scavengers;
if they are not filled, they howl.III
But I shall sing of your strength,
extol your mercy at dawn,
For you are my fortress,
my refuge in time of trouble.8My strength, your praise I will sing;
Psalms 59:1-18
you, God, are my fortress, my loving God.
Is anyone else starting to see a theme develop this week? It seems that each day is another plea for God to rescue the psalmist from his enemies. Fortunately, each psalm continues to profess faith that God is the ultimate protector for the righteous.
I also notice that my reaction to this common theme seems to change from day to day, depending on what else is happening around me. Then again, I suppose that is the way Scripture has worked for all of recorded time. In every age, the people read the inspired Word of God and hear what they need to hear for their own unique situations.
In the education world, we call this constructivist theory. Certainly, words on a page have no meaning by themselves. They derive meaning as the reader considers them in the context of his or her particular understanding. Since each individual has a unique set of prior experiences and knowledge, that meaning is likely to be slightly different from one person to the next. It seems logical that reading Sacred Scripture would have a similar characteristic.
In my case this week, I am noticing how my own experiences from day to day even seem to change the meaning that I make from each psalm. Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and find that you suddenly can’t turn your brain off long enough to get back to sleep? That happened to me last night. According to my Fitbit app, I was awake from 3:24am to 4:50am, and I remember it happening. I was excited about a meeting I had scheduled for today, so that was the main topic I kept running through my head.
Well, the meeting was not as positive as I had imagined it …honestly, I was too hyped about it in the first place. So while most days, I’ve been focused on finding the positive message, today I am struggling to avoid being dragged into the “woe is me” tone that we’ve read so much lately. Just because I didn’t get enthusiastic support for an idea that I know is probably a departure from the norm, I catch myself assuming that I will be written off or ignored.
Of course, that is silly. There is literally no reason that someone who has really never met me before should trust me on face value with a big project proposal. Certainly they will need to explore my resources and do some checking. Also, if the project doesn’t fly in that location, I will just have to find a plan B! Right?
So I am back in line with the psalmist in the final lines. “My strength, your praise I will sing; you, God, are my fortress, my loving God.” I pray that God will continue to guide me on this quest and direct me to the resources I need to continue the mission. I still believe I have a message to share. I just need to find the right place and time to begin to deliver it!