Wednesday May 1 Easter 5
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Psalm 119 Part 4
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Each of the 176 verses is a variation on the theme of what it means to follow God’s call to justice, using terms such as “command”,”law”, “word”, “statute”, and the like. The psalm is arranged in 22 groups of eight verses—one group for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Within a group, each of the eight verses starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the groups are in Hebrew alphabetical order. So the first group of eight verses all start with A, the second group all start with B and so on. The first seven verses mirror the seven days of creation, with the eighth sometimes pointing to the next group. This very careful construction mirrors God’s creating the universe by overcoming chaos with order.
In the human world, justice, dignity and fulfilment – the outcomes of justice—are the human expressions of order. Thus the human world and the rest of creation are united in the same foundation. Today’s three sections begin with the letters Y, K and L (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “Y” and so on.
Leviticus 19.1-18 What’s Leviticus about?
God gives to Moses a second version of the ten commandments—notice how care for the poor and oppressed is mandated in practical ways. This is the Israelite insight that for God, dignity for everyone is an absolute requirement. Because they themselves had experienced rescue as an insignificant people, they understood that they, and all people, are obligated to to the same for anyone without power.
Matthew 6.19-24 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus critiques the human desire to accumulate security in the various forms of wealth. He points out that wealth is unreliable, that focusing one’s life on becoming secure will result in blindness because we we be unable to see others and so love them—how dark that will be! Finally, making our own security a priority will prevent us from acting in justice—we won’t be able to follow God’s priorities.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
Give us grace to love one another
and walk in the way of his commandments,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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