“An honest questioning”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, July 25, 2022
Psalm 7:1-9 (Forward, p. 88) CEV p. 558
Far too often, especially with those in authority, we are reluctant to ask the hard questions, the difficult, pressing or uncomfortable ones. The same is true of us and God. We somehow feel that we have to soft-pedal our concerns and problems and hide our emotions from Him. Here, then, yesterday’s reading from Genesis (Genesis 18:20-32), where Abraham pulls absolutely no punches in questioning God about the innocent people who might be caught up in God’s judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah and interceding for them. He really holds nothing back in reminding God that He as judge of all the earth must surely have to do what is right (v. 25). The prophet Habakkuk, though for a different reason, is no less forthright in expressing his emotions and holding God to account.
In today’s psalm David is fully venting his feelings towards God. Basically, he is saying to God, ‘what gives’. Seeing as I am innocent, why is all this happening to me? Just hear, for a moment, his protestations of innocence. The various translations of verse 4 surely give abundant evidence of this:
Verse 4a;
“I have not betrayed a friend
“If I have repaid my ally with evil
“If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me
“If I have done harm to one at peace with me
“If I have requited with evil those who requited me with good
“If I have maltreated someone treating me equitably
Verse 4b:
“If I without cause have robbed my foe
“If I plundered my enemy without cause [for no reason]
“Or have delivered him that without cause is my enemy [adversary]
“Or if I have afflicted my enemies for nothing [without justification]
“Or spoiled mine adversary unto emptiness
“Or even despoiled my oppressor without cause Surely, this gives an overall sense of his blamelessness, both towards a friend or ally on one hand, and an enemy or adversary on the other. No wonder, he can confidently say, in verse 5:
“If I have done any of this, then let my enemies chase and capture me. Let them stomp me to death and leave me in the dirt.”
Verses 8-9 merely echo this sense of innocence, but then add one thing to David’s personal protestations of innocence. They add God’s voice to this. In essence, David says to God, ‘You, Lord, know fully well that this is true of me.’
“Our Lord, judge the nations! Judge me and show that I am honest and innocent. You know every heart and mind, and you always do right. Now make violent people stop, but protect all of us who obey you.”
So, David, while fully expressing his dismay at what is happening to him and honestly admitting that it is not right or fair that this should be happening to him, fully expects God to intervene and do something about it.
And so it can be with us. We should feel free to vent our feelings without reserve or hesitancy and should feel free to express just what we feel that we need. Yes, even if it puts God in a bad or negative light or seems to blame Him for our predicament. We don’t have to be cautious or afraid of what He might think or do. God is fully ‘able to take it’ and, in fact, wants us to pour out our woes to Him. An honest questioning of Him is quite alright. This is what a trusting and loving relationship is all about. Amen.
Forward notes: “Give judgment for me according to my righteousness, O LORD, and according to my innocence, O Most High” (verse 8).
Commemoration: Saint James, Apostle
“Jesus had a nickname for James and his brother John: ‘Sons of Thunder’ (or Boanerges, as it travels from Aramaic to Greek in the Gospel of Mark).
“And they thundered! In Luke’s Gospel, the brothers are so incensed when a Samaritan village rejects Jesus that they want to call down God’s fiery destruction. James was the first disciple to be martyred, a testament to his passionate preaching and the threat it posed to Rome’s power. And in Matthew, we see James and John declare that they are ready to follow Jesus anywhere—but also that they long to sit in a place of honor in God’s kingdom, missing the point of the kingdom entirely. Jesus calls his friends together and calms the uproar, with those familiar words that whoever wants to become great must become a servant. [See Matthew 20:20-28].
“In these stories of bluster, we know Jesus delivered with love the nickname of ‘Sons of Thunder.’ James and John were two of Jesus’s closest friends. He knew their gifts and their faults—and loved them anyway. What a wonderful thing to be known that way by God.”
Moving Forward: “What nickname might Jesus give you?”