Living in the Spirit
August 2, 2017
Scripture Reading: Psalm 17:1-7,15
Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry;
give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
From you let my vindication come;
let your eyes see the right.
If you try my heart, if you visit me by night,
if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me;
my mouth does not transgress.
As for what others do, by the word of your lips
I have avoided the ways of the violent.
My steps have held fast to your paths;
my feet have not slipped. –Psalm 17:1-5
Apparently, the author of this Psalm felt the need to justify this prayer. First, the Psalm professes the justice of a plea for vindication and then it itemizes the worthiness of the one making the supplication. I assume the person praying feels unjustly accused of wrongdoing. In high school, I was called to the office and questioned about missing money from the snack bar collections made at a basketball game the night before. Both the superintendent and principal were present and very serious. I was in charge of the snack bar and left the money box as instructed as we closed. I had no explanation for why there was money missing. Two people counted the money and put a note in the box with how much was in it at the beginning and how much was there at the closing. I was given no information about how much was missing. I explained the process we followed stating I had no idea why the cash on hand was less than the amount reported. I was excused and never heard another word about it. I felt the sting of unjust guilt and the importance of following protocols. My guess is the officials discovered what happened and handled it confidentially. Lots of rumors spun lots of possibilities. I remained in charge of the snack bar, and we continued to count the money the same way, but it was transferred directly to the principal after that rather than leaving it in an office.
My first reaction to this Psalm was that if we had to prove we were perfect to God before we asked for God’s justice, we were all lost. None of us are perfect, and God is the God of both justice and mercy. My prayers more often start with a request for forgiveness than a listing of my righteousness. That said, I think it is important that we routinely self-examine our behavior asking God to reshape us in the ways of love. Often our most conspicuously bad traits are the ones we do not see as they are so ingrained in our way of being. Holding ourselves up to the plumb line of Christ, using Christ as our model may be the only way we can free ourselves from habits that limit our success in serving God.
Prayer: Lord, forgive me when I fall short of being the person you want me to be. Help me see myself more clearly and enable me to shed bad habits. Amen.