Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled. Happy are all who take refuge in him.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, July 5, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Um. It’s this kind of scripture that gives God a bad reputation. It paints God as a ruthless tyrant who we should all grovel before in order to guarantee our own protection. I just can’t go there. That kind of imagery has led to all kinds of oppression of all kinds of people, directly and indirectly. It’s God being created in man’s image (and I mean man in the specifically gendered sense, not as a generalization). Yes, I get that these words are from a people declaring their identity in the midst of their own near-constant oppression. A powerful, king-like God who could “break” the other nations “with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (v. 9) was comforting. It’s just one more example of the specific location (physical, temporal, and cultural) of the writers of scripture, and why we need to read God’s word with an eye for our own such location.
Today, I recognize that my people, my culture, my country, my religion are the oppressors. The “nations,” if you will. While I don’t envision God ever demanding anyone kiss God’s feet with trembling, I do recognize God calling us back from our conspiring and plotting (v. 1) And, honestly, I think God is pretty angry at us for our selfish and harmful actions, in the way that a loving parent gets angry at a badly-behaved child. There are consequences, but without derision (v. 4) or wrathful destruction. There is always grace and mercy.
That being said, we still need to repent of our sins—our legacy of oppression, racism, colonialism, genocide, and more. May God hold us as we wrestle with this.
Have I thought of God as punishing and wrathful? Why or why not? What effect has that had on my faith?
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