This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

US to clean up areas in Vietnam polluted by agent orange

Psalm 145

The Greatness and the Goodness of God

¹ I will extol you, my God and King,    and bless your name for ever and ever.
² Every day I will bless you, and praise your name for ever and ever.
³ Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;    his greatness is unsearchable.
⁴ One generation shall laud your works to another,    and shall declare your mighty acts.
⁵ On the glorious splendour of your majesty,    and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
⁶ The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,    and I will declare your greatness.
⁷ They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness,    and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
⁸ The Lord is gracious and merciful,    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ The Lord is good to all,    and his compassion is over all that he has made.
¹⁰ All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,    and all your faithful shall bless you.
¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,    and tell of your power,
¹² to make known to all people your^* mighty deeds,    and the glorious splendour of your^* kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,    and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The Lord is faithful in all his words,    and gracious in all his deeds.^*
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling,    and raises up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵The eyes of all look to you,    and you give them their food in due season.

food in due season

¹⁶ You open your hand,    satisfying the desire of every living thing.
¹⁷ The Lord is just in all his ways,    and kind in all his doings.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on him,    to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He fulfils the desire of all who fear him;    he also hears their cry, and saves them.
²⁰ The Lord watches over all who love him,    but all the wicked he will destroy.
²¹My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,    and all flesh will bless his holy name for ever and ever.

This is a splendid hymn of praise to Israel’s God whose rule is not limited by time or space. God rules everywhere and forever. The characteristics of God’s rule are graciousnesss, mercy, steadfast love, compassion- and slow anger! This last means that God is not capricious like some earthly monarchs: because he loves, he can be angry at actions which oppress his beloved creatures, but his anger serves his justice. The Qu’ran also describes God as merciful and compassionate. I’ve no doubt that the world would be a better place if Jews and Moselms and Christians kept in mind these characteristics of God’s rule. Nothing is more dismaying than the ill-tempered outbursts of rabbis, ayatollahs, priests and ministers when they are passing hasty judgment on people whose behaviour they dislike.

“The Lord upholds all who are falling” Samuel Becket used a phrase from the KJV tranlsation  of this psalm as the title of his savage play, “All that fall” which expresses his conviction that the Lord certainly does not uphold them. It’s right that he should challenge any comfortable interpretation of these words: God does not protect his beloved from suffering and death. Christians should know this, because they celebrate the fact that God did not protect his Beloved Son from suffering and death. Some of our common prayers are not faithful, in that they give the impression that God might choose in a particular instance to intervene and save. That is a notion which does great harm to those whose suffering is not alleviated. God only intervenes through the processes of nature and the actions of his creatures. In faith we should, when we suffer, look for God’s help mediated through nature and our brothers and sisters. We should hope for the extension of this help to more of the conditions which cause people to suffer. But ultimately, we should hold fast the conviction that even those who are not helped and whose lives end in suffering and apparent defeat are lifted up by God as he lifted up his Son, beyond death.

“The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to those who call upon him in truth.” When I cease to expect God to perform trivial miracles especially for me, I become more conscious that he is present to me in just this tree, just this loaf of bread, just this loved one, just this scripture, just this music, just this psalm.