by Marcia Mount Shoop
Psalm 84:1-12
“This Psalm is an invitation to a wisdom that expands. It’s a song about being well in the whole wide world. It’s a song about knowing that the whole world is God’s dwelling place and that we can be home with God anywhere we are–dwelling well is about our self-understanding and the ways we see all others.
Dwelling well is knowing the difference between those who are self-serving and those who are serving God. Being blameless, or walking uprightly, is not about being perfect and getting everything right, it’s about humility and knowing your dependence on God, it’s about trust, and putting God at the center. It’s about right relationship with God, ourselves, and others. The “wickedness” in the translation in the NRSV is about being self-serving, instead of God-centered. It’s not about the different things that institutional Christianity has used to try and exile people–sexuality, identity, marital status, speaking truth to power. Wickedness is about being out of kilter with God’s central role in our lives. When we forget the unique power of Spirit is not the same as our own, we forget what right relationship really is.”
Watch the full GCPC service on 2/4/24 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 36:15)