Psalm for Sunday 19 June 2022

 Psalm 69.10-20, 30-33     

Now I humbled my soul with fasting,

         and they reviled me. 

And I wore sackcloth as my clothing,

         and I became to them a byword. 

They speak against me, they who sit in the city gates, 

       while the drunkards make songs about me. 

Yet I make my prayer to you, the Wisdom of the Ages.

         At a favorable time, 

       God, in the wealth of your faithful love, answer me, 

       With your certain salvation. 

Rescue me from the mire, 

       and let me not sink;

       let me be delivered from my enemies 

       and from the deep waters. 

Let not the flood waters overwhelm me, 

Let not the Deep swallow me up;

         let not the Pit close its mouth over me. 

Answer me, Gracious God, for your faithful love is good;

       according to the wealth of your maternal love, turn to me. 

Do not hide your face from your slave, for I am in distress; 

hurry to answer me. 

Draw near to my soul and redeem her, 

       on account of my enemies, deliver me. 

Indeed, you know of my reviling, and my shame and my disgrace;

         all my adversaries are before you.

Reviling has broken my heart, and I am despair.

 I looked for consolation, but there was none;

       And for comforters and I found none. 

I will praise the name of God with song;

       I will magnify her with thanksgiving. 

This will please the Creator of All more than an ox

       or a bull with horns and hooves.

Let the oppressed see it and be glad;

       you who seek God, let your hearts flourish.

For the Faithful God hears the needy, 

and those who belong to her and are imprisoned,

       she does not despise. 

Let the heavens and earth praise her, 

       the seas and everything that moves in them. 

                As translated in Gafney, Wilda C.  A Woman’s Lectionary for the Whole Church.

                                          (NY: Church Publishing, 2021)  228-229.

Today’s take on Psalm 69.10-21, 30-33

I make my prayer to the One Who Hears, rescue your middle masses

let us not sink to oblivion while

rich leftists and their rightist doppelgängers

egomaniacal politicians red and blue

covertly consort in greed, entitlement, power mongering

demand loyalty, forsake accountability and fail

in conscience and consciousness.  No one is disposable.

 

I make my prayer to the One Who Hears, recover your middle masses 

shield our ears from

outsized shouts of egregious excess

magnified by media moguls breaking whatever news

titillates and pads their pockets

drowning in the deep

middle masses cries.             No one is disposable.

I make my prayer to the One Who Hears, unify your middle masses

escaping schemes from left and right

quench the flares they launch among us 

spark our distaste for red herring suits

          abortion, immigration, education   .…   all

hatched to mislead and distract 

middle masses cries. No one is disposable.

I make my prayer to the One Who Hears, raise your middle masses

10,000 feet above the 2 face world

unleash our tongues to sing a tale

big enough for all to breath and be

in and of, with and through 

the One Who hears and consecrates

your middle masses lives. No one is disposable.

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Have a listen to Walter Brueggemann's "Prophetic Imagination.... great stuff!