Psalm 14 has been hard to edit.
A few reasons. I wrote the meditation prior to the decision to share them in this way… and that matters because as I look over what I wrote I think about how it will be received, how it sounds, what it conveys. The message that I would want to deliver [or not deliver]. I think about people who are agnostic or atheist or who just don’t believe in the God of the Bible – the ones who credit the unseen world to the power of the universe – the divine. I wonder if they can even hear reflections on these scriptures.
I think about how there are folks out there who use words from the Bible to justify atrocious things. I don’t want to be lumped into the same space as those people who justify their ugliness with the same words that I would use to share beauty and goodness.
But I am not God’s defender… I am his creation. He can defend Himself. I am just trying to listen and hear so that I might be able to follow and do.
Psalm 14 has been hard because I have seen for the first time this very strong bent towards drawing this line between us and them. There is a lot of line-drawing that takes place in our world. And in our personal lives. We all do it. I do it. I was just thinking about this couple that I know of who has a hobby that makes absolutely no sense to me. I consider it ‘weird’. And on the flip side, I personally feel ostracized when I talk about my own hobbies and I am met with a blank stare or an empty response; and all I can see on their faces is ‘she is wierd’. But we can’t stop at this. We are different. We disagree. We don’t have to be friends… but I do think it is good to be friendly; that it is good to listen, to be able to hear the stories of others and to make the effort to offer empathy or at least kindness.
So in this Psalm, David, talks and refers often in his imagery to this line that separates God’s side and the Enemy’s side. I am far from an historical expert, but I think that the Jewish worldview (was) is rooted in whether you were in or out. Either you are or you aren’t. There is no process to becoming, no journey towards belief. And when the story of God gets to the point where the work of Jesus enters into the narrative, it is clear that all of these dividing walls come down, there is no longer any need for these distinctions between Jew or non-Jew, slave or free-person, male or female…
And I do believe very much that there is good and evil, right and wrong… but I also believe that God is the only righteous judge. Even when a person does a detestable thing, that is not the end of their story. As long as they breathe, there is hope. And I can disagree with how a person eats and be repulsed by their bad breath… I might kindly hint that their breath is a little off-putting, but I cannot make them brush their teeth, they don’t answer to me.
So what does this Psalm and its hard line have to offer? It’s made me think, that is for sure.
Stupid people deny God
Stupid people are corrupt
Stupid people do abdominal things
Everyone is stupid
There is not one good person to be found in all the world
God is way up high in his high high place
And when he looks down on all the children of man
He sees that they are all stupid
They refuse to understand
They refuse to seek him
And in their corruption, they continue
They turn away from good
They turn away from knowledge
They turn toward evil
They devour each other
They are filled with terror
They invoke terror
They spread terror
They ignore the great secret…
The great light that illuminates
God is with the righteous
God is the refuge for the poor
God strengthens these plans
God prospers these ways
These find salvation in Him
These find restoration in him
These find fortunes in Him
These are his people
These rejoice
These are glad
They see. These have.
He looks down on them and walks with these.
Unmovable
Writing from Life, for Life. 