Pentecost
June 1, 2022
Scripture Reading:
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord! –Psalm 104:31-34, 35
I want my meditations to be pleasing to me. I had not realized that until I read this psalm that says May my meditation be pleasing to (God). I meditate to calm down or collect myself. Now, God is most likely pleased with me calming down and getting my act together, but this scripture made me wonder if I am entering into meditation for the wrong reasons. The true purpose of meditation is to get in sync with God. This is important in our crazy world today where discord is common, and some seem to intentionally focus on keeping people divided. We are all much better at reading the world about us in truth when we are in sync with God.
The other piece about this scripture that caught my attention was the phrase, Let sinners be consumed from the earth. That reads like the sinners will be destroyed. I looked up what the Hebrew word Tamam translated as consumed in this Psalm and found that it means to be finished. I can identify with that. Romans 3:23 says since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We still must work at outgrowing our turning to sin as a lesser way of dealing with the realities of life. Our goal is to trust in God enough that following God’s ways is the higher ground we are called to follow. We are also promised that if we stick with God’s ways, God’s grace fills the gaps we may not even see when necessary.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your grace Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you (Psalm 19:14) Amen.
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.