Pesky Psalter

For most of today, I was considering the words of Psalm 139: "Where can I go then from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" Lately, I have felt that urge to flee, to find a cave, to set myself away and apart.

Welcome to Holy Week 2010! And the psalmist in 139 makes it clear that there is no place to run to, there is no shelter that will hide me from God... because "My body was not hidden from you while I was being made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth."

But it is Psalm 12, appointed for today, that stopped me... and grabbed my attention:

1 Help me, LORD, for there is no godly one left; *
the faithful have vanished from among us.

2 Everyone speaks falsely with his neighbor; *
with a smooth tongue they speak from a double heart.

3 Oh, that the LORD would cut off all smooth tongues, *
and close the lips that utter proud boasts!

4 Those who say, "With our tongue will we prevail; *
our lips are our own; who is lord over us?"

5 "Because the needy are oppressed,
and the poor cry out in misery, *
I will rise up," says the LORD,
"and give them the help they long for."

6 The words of the LORD are pure words, *
like silver refined from ore
and purified seven times in the fire.

7 O LORD, watch over us *
and save us from this generation for ever.

8 The wicked prowl on every side, *
and that which is worthless is highly prized by everyone.

During Holy Week, it is customary for Episcopal priests to make themselves available to hear private confessions of sin and offer absolution. Not a whole lot of people avail themselves of this opportunity, but I wonder if they would if they studied closely the language of this Psalm.

There is a great deal of deceitful speech out there, made by "smooth tongues" designed to lead people astray. I have worked in places where nobody ever told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. As a reporter, you are constantly getting fed self-serving lies which you had to sort through, double and triple check, and yet still, you were bound to not get a story completely right because sometimes there was just no way to know for sure what was real.

What this Psalm did for me is make me contemplate the destructive nature of lying and gossiping. "Help me, Lord, for there is no godly one left; the faithful have vanished from among us. Everyone speaks falsely with his neighbor; with a smooth tongue they speak from a double heart."

Put another way: who can I trust, God, when everyone is lying to me?

I definitely see this in some places still within the Church. In some Dioceses, to be gay is a guarantee that you will be seen, barely, and definitely not heard. In fact, I was totally stunned this morning to learn that the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi is offering a spiritual retreat for LGBT Christians. Mississippi?? Really??? Meanwhile, in other places here in the deep Southern United States, gay people are in congregations; yet a prospective candidate for the priesthood will be told to leave and go somewhere else, even if they have family and connections and a church home that they'd have to give up. Oh, well... that IS the way of the disciples, right? Give it all up to follow God. Gee, perhaps that makes gay people better candidates by making discipleship a literal, and not just a figurative!

"O Lord, watch over us
and save us from this generation for ever."