Psalm 9: 17-20

Text
Wicked ways are turned into hell and all the nations that forget divinity. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ages. Arise, O guide, let not flesh prevail. Let my heathen thoughts be judged in thy sight. Put them in awe, that is, that the nations may know themselves to be but human. Selah.

Text Notes

• This King James Inclusive Version retains the usage of "hell" in the OT unlike most contemporary versions. The dozens of occurrences are overwhelmingly present tense,i.e. Hell is Now.
• "Awe" captures more fully the semantic range of the original and is more appropriate in psalms for meditation than the rendering "fear".

Reflection
To forget divinity, that of God in every person, is to be "turned into hell". This text also makes explicit what it means to be wicked: to forget the needy. And, to allow the "expectation of the poor" to perish. These are truly "heathen thoughts" that I must overcome with love, which flows from God, my divine center.

Psalm 9: 11-16

Text
I sing praises to thee, which dwelleth in Zion and declare among the people thy doings. When inquisition is made for blood, thou rememberest them, thou forgettest not the cry of the humble. May I enter into mercy, O consider my trouble which I suffer from thoughts of hate. Thou liftest me up from the gates of death, that I may show forth all thy celebration in the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in thy wholeness. My heathen thoughts are sunk down in the pit that they made, in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. Thou art known by the justice which thou executeth: the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.

Text Notes

• Psalms for Meditation again makes abstract, thus internal, the sense in another phrase. In this case it is "thoughts of hate" rather than "them that hate me".
• And, the fullest meaning of the original is captured in the word "wholeness" rather than "salvation" as in KJV1611.

Reflection
Any form of religion that fosters hatred of 'the other' is a death-oriented faith. A genuine inward sense of God is that which lifts me up from death. Much of what passes for fundamental faith seems to be mere tribalism. Real salvation is "wholeness", an inclusive embrace of life as it really is. Our Guide will lead us into justice and deliverance.

Psalm 9: 5-10

Text
Thou hast rebuked the heathen ways, thou hast destroyed wickedness, thou hast put out that name for ages and ages. O thou enemy within, destructions are come to a perpetual end, and destroyed are cities, their memorial is perished with them. But thou, my guide within, shalt endure for ages. Thou hast prepared thy throne for justice. And shalt judge a world in rightness, thou shalt minister justice to the people in uprightness. Thou also wilt be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know thy name will put their trust in thee, for thou hast not forsaken those who seek thee.

Text Notes

• The K-JIV makes the internal struggle clear: "heathen ways" rather than "heathen"; "enemy within" instead of "enemy", etc. In meditation, the focus is on our inward "rightness" with eventual outward justice.

Reflection
Yes there are. There are "heathen ways" exalted in our culture. And internalized too often within me. Destructive, even violent, lifestyles are the proposed solutions to our world's problems. But, "thou has prepared thy throne for justice". That is the crying need. As I win the battle over the selfish enemy within, then I can see justice for the oppressed in society around me.

Psalm 9: 1-4

Text
I will celebrate thee, O guide, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous works! I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing and celebrate to thy name, O thou most high. When mine enemy thoughts are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause, thou dost sit in thy throne judging right.

Text Notes

• The King James Inclusive Version, K-JIV, has "celebrate" where the KJV1611 translates "praise". Both English words are part of the broad sense of the original.
• In these Psalms for Meditation, "enemies" are understood as "enemy thoughts".

Reflection
To celebrate for the sheer joy of it! The Psalmist captures the flavor of the spirit I feel when we gather in Meeting for Worship. It is good to be glad and rejoice. The inward guide "judges right" and those self-serving enemy thoughts can be vanquished! They "fall and perish at thy presence". And so celebration leads to a life lived intentionally.

Psalm 8: 5-9

Text
For thou hast made them a little lower than the messengers, and hast crowned them with glory and honor. Thou madest them to have dominion over the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things under their feet. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Presence, our guide, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Text Notes

As is well known, the general sense of the word often rendered "angels" in the KJV1611 is "messengers". In these psalms for meditation, the more basic sense is typically used.

Reflection
Yes, we sense our "dominion" over creation, even over the "beasts of the field". But, what shall we do with this supremacy that we feel?! My need for respect for other creatures is great. I suspect that this is the only "crown of glory and honor" that humanity can wear: respect for all of life. Do I recognize that the very excellence of "thy name" consists in it being fully recognized "in all the earth?

Psalm 8: 1-4

Text
O thou Presence, our guide, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, which hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, as the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, What is humanity that thou are mindful of them? And the child of humanity, that thou visitest?

Text Notes

• The KJV1611 differentiates two different Hebrew words in the first verse by capitalizing one of them, YHWH. In the Psalms for Meditation, the K-JIV distinguishes the two by using "Presence" and "guide".
• Likewise, the older phrase "son of man" is here "child of humanity".

Reflection
Babes and sucklings are one of the best witnesses to the glory of this connecting Presence in creation. In the presence of an infant, even a robust one (!), I feel stillness. The Psalmist's use of anthropological language, as in "thy fingers", brings intimacy to the sense of divine love and power in creation and within my soul.

Psalm 7: 12-17

Text
If wickedness turn not, thou wilt whet thy sword. Thou hast bent thy bow and made it ready! Thou hast also prepared the instruments of the death of wickedness. Thou ordainest thine arrows against the persecuting spirit. Behold the way of evil: they travail with iniquity, and conceive mischief, and bring forth falsehood. They made a pit and dug it, and are fallen into the ditch which they made. Their mischief shall return upon their own head, and their violent dealing shall come down upon their own pate. I will celebrate thee, O inward guide, according to thy rightness, and will sing and celebrate to thy name most high!

Text Notes

• The abstract word "wickedness" continues to be the focus in these psalms for meditation. It is the death of the principle of wickedness that is in view.
• Similarly, it is the "persecuting spirit" that our inner light struggles against in our lives.

Reflection
To engage in warfare is important! The battle rages within. Should I capitulate to sectarian impulses? Should I spread hate speech? The Psalmist says that we all, in effect, get pregnant. In the language above, we conceive, we travail, and we bring forth! What will I be pregnant with? Self destructive thoughts? Or plans of inclusive justice? May I, indeed, celebrate the best within me, thou inward light!

Psalm 7: 9-11

Text
Oh let the wickedness of our ways come to an end, but establish justice! For the right-living, divinity trieth the hearts and emotions. My defense is from divinity which maketh whole the upright in heart. Yea, divinity judgeth the right! But, is divinity angry with the presence of wickedness every day? If wickedness turn not, thou wilt whet thy sword. Thou hast bent thy bow and made it ready. Thou hast also prepared the instruments of the death of wickedness, thou ordainest thy arrows against the persecuting spirit.

Text Notes

• In these meditative psalms, "wicked" (in the 1611KJV) is "wickedness", an abstract quality within us rather than "the other".
• And, the Psalms for Meditation understand the Psalmist to be asking, "is divinity angry" rather than stating"God is angry" as in the KJV1611. It is a question to sit with in our meditation of our divine center.

Reflection
In our text above, the opposite of wickedness is justice. What is my role in furthering justice in this society? Yes, I am made whole in divinity, but not as an end in itself. I want to be able to say with the Psalmist: wholeness leads to working for the death of wickedness, injustice, around me. The persecuting spirit must perish.

Pslam 7: 1-8

Text
O guide my divinity, in thee do I put my trust, make me whole from all those who persecute me, and deliver me. Lest they tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. O guide my divinity, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil unto one who was at peace with me (yea, I have delivered a person who without cause is mine enemy), then shall the enemy within persecute my soul, and take it! Yea, it shall tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honor in the dust. Selah. Arise, O guide, in all this anger, lift up thyself from amidst the rage of my struggles. And awake for me to the judgement that thou hast commanded. So shall the gathering of the people encompass thee about, for their sakes therefore return thou on high. The divine center shall judge within people. Judge me, O my guide, according to my rightness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

Text Notes

• The word "within" is added twice in the passage above, as elsewhere in the Psalms for Meditation, to clarify the nature of the internal struggle.
• Thus "enemy within" as well as "judge within" (specifying the location of judgment).
• Where the 1611KJV has "thine anger", the K-JIV is less anthropomorphic with "all this anger".

Reflection
Real righteousness ('rightness') is not tribalistic, not used to demean others. Too often my sense of offended justice focuses on the faults of someone else. Rather than only rage at perceived injustice, I need the judgment of this divine center within. In that way I can learn to act from my own integrity!