ADVENT 2025 – DAY THREE

For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
    and evil cannot dwell with you.

[PSALM 5:4]

ADVENT DAILY OFFICE READINGS
AM Psalm 5, 6; PM Psalm 10, 11 Amos 3:1-11; 2 Pet. 1:12-21; Matt. 21:12-22

I do not listen to the news broadcasts in the morning.

If I were to do so, I would be in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

So, I gave up that habit shortly after I retired.

These days, after morning prayer, I will check out the sports scores on my phone and take a quick glance at the headlines.

If there is something I feel I need to be informed on, I read the report. Otherwise, it goes unread. There will be plenty of time later in the day to listen to or watch a newscast if I really need to know what is going on.

My wife and I have different prayer practices.

I wake up extremely early, do my morning prayers and read; and, if it’s still early enough when I’m finished, I take another quick snooze.

My wife, on the other hand, usually sits at the dining room table where she prays and reads while eating her breakfast.

On occasion, she will read a passage – usually a psalm – and exclaim, “It’s amazing how much of what happens in the Bible is going on in the present day!”

I nod in silent agreement.

One of the assigned psalms for this day, psalm five, is from a group of psalms in the psalter that are known as “imprecatory psalms.”

Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my meditation.

Hearken to my cry for help, my King and my God,
for I make my prayer to you.

In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
early in the morning I make my appeal and watch for you.
(Psalm 5:1-3)

In the words of the blessed Dietrich Bonhoeffer[i], “No section of the psalter causes us greater difficulty than to pray these psalms.” (Bonhoeffer 56)

Simply put, they are psalms that lament injustice and call down judgments, curses, or calamities upon the wicked and the unjust.

Read again the cries of the psalmist:

Braggarts cannot stand in your sight;
you hate all those who work wickedness.

You destroy those who speak lies;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful, O Lord, you abhor.
(Psalm 5:5-6)

Bonhoeffer is quick to add that those who are referred to here are enemies of the cause of God and nowhere is it a matter of personal conflicts. (Bonhoeffer 57)

The person who prays these psalms also leaves revenge in God’s hands.

It’s so easy these days to get angry at what is going on in our society and in our world.

We see it played out in incidents of road rage, the rise in gun violence, the political turmoil.

If you’re on social media, you’ve noticed the predominance of bias and ignorance in the posts and even more so in the replies.

As a nation, we seem to have lost our sense of community, our mutually sustaining relationships, our capacity to care for each other.

That is where, in our exasperation, we turn to God and to each other.

But as for me, through the greatness of your mercy I will go into your house;
I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.

Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness, because of those who lie in wait for me;
make your way straight before me.
(Psalm 5:7-8)

When we gather to study God’s word, to pray and sing together, to share Holy Communion, the meal of forgiveness together; we push ourselves back into a relationship with the one who provides us a reason for hope – God in Jesus Christ.

It is in these sacred moments that we begin to glimpse what God can and will do.

God promises to be with us amid suffering, encouraging us to care for those around us despite our differences and to receive their care in turn; and reminding us that even on the cross, Jesus prayed for his enemies, and teaches us to do the same.

Let us pray:
O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth: deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 816)

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[i] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. PSALMS The Prayer Book of the Bible. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1970.