000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

While we do not think that God is the cause of the downfall of our enemies
(other factors adequately account for the rise and fall of empires), we
appreciate the fact that the psalmists frequently “pray through” their attitudes
to their enemies. They do not piously assure themselves that they are
too moral to have enemies, which may be only a form of self-deception.
Rather, they accept that they have hostile attitudes toward enemies and
take those attitudes into their conversations with the Lord. We should pray
that the Lord transform our hearts and minds as well as those of our enemies.
God’s aim that reconciliation replace estrangement and hostility can
transform our attitudes if we are honest and willing to work through them.
Verse 4 praises the Lord for having been “a refuge to the poor . . . to
the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from
the heat.” Here the Lord is praised for caring for the vulnerable, the last,
the lost, and the least of society, central concerns of the Torah and the
Prophets and of Jesus’ ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel
(Matt. 10:6; 15:24). It is particularly the vulnerable whom the Lord protects
from “the blast of the ruthless” and “the noise of aliens” (v. 5). In our
world it is still the most vulnerable who need protection from the ruthless,
those women and their dependents, both the aged and children, on
the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.
Verses 6–8 describe an eschatological feast that the Lord “will make for
all peoples” (italics ours). It is to be a sumptuous meal of rich food and fine
wine. In this hoped-for future, “the shroud that is cast over all peoples”
will be destroyed (v. 7); war, death, and the famine that comes with war
will be taken away. The Lord will “swallow up death forever” and “wipe
away the tears from all faces” (vv. 7–8). “Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh” (Luke 6:21) will in the end be true, when “God . . . will
wipe every tear from their eyes [and] death will be no more” (Rev. 21:4).
What Advent looks forward to arrives in Jesus Christ fragmentarily and
proleptically and what Easter celebrates, the triumph not only over death
but also over death-dealing, is hardly yet on the scene. Evil still stalks the
world and the nations still imagine vain things in war (Ps. 2:1), but in hope
and faith God’s covenant people can work and witness to a hope that the
world might yet reflect the glory of God.
As Isaiah puts it: “on that day” it will be said, “This is the LORD for
whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (25:9).
Day of Pentecost/Year B
Ezekiel 37:1–14
Day of Pentecost/Year B 149
For comments on this passage, please see the Fifth Sunday in Lent/Year A.