Deacon Susan Erickson

Ps. 140, 142; 1 Samuel 13:19 - 14:15; Acts 9:1-9; Luke 23:26-31

Dear Friend,

Maybe you, like me, are weary of the name-calling that now seems woven into the fabric of American society. And so maybe, like me, you're made a little uncomfortable by the Psalmist’s name-calling in many of the Psalms. Today’s Psalm 140 is one of those “cringe-inducing” prayers, what are sometimes referred to as “imprecatory psalms.”

Deliver me, O LORD, from evildoers … They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s … protect me from the violent … The arrogant have hidden a trap for me … Let burning coals fall on them!

But today’s reading from Acts shows us that God may have plans even for those we call “evildoers,” “wicked,” and “arrogant.” Acts 9: 1-9 recounts the conversion of Saul, who would become the great Apostle Paul. Saul has been a zealous persecutor of the followers of Christ. He is on his way to Damascus to bring some of these followers back to Jerusalem “bound.” Saul has truly “hidden a trap” for those who belong to “the Way”— that is, the earliest Christians.

Determined to destroy this new sect, Saul is overcome by Christ’s power on the road to Damascus. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” says a voice. Saul knows the voice is from heaven, so he addresses it as Lord. But he does not know who this unknown Lord is. “The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, who you are persecuting.’” Interestingly, the King James translation adds the following verses to Jesus’s reply: “‘it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’”

I’m a little sorry that those verses were eliminated from the NRSV, even if was in the interests of a more accurate translation. To me, those words of Jesus suggest that Saul had already been aware of the call to turn himself around and go in a completely different direction. But he has ignored the call, the “pricks.” Now, in a dramatic encounter with the risen Christ, he can’t ignore them any longer.

More often than we’d care to admit, we share the Psalmist’s wish that God will punish those folks we deem wicked and arrogant. We may even pray that God will protect us from our own violent feelings and impulses. But as the Psalmist also recognizes in Psalm 142, God will “deal bountifully with me.” This bounty knows no bounds. It can transform even those like Saul who seem permanently imprisoned by hate. It can make us listen to God’s call, however hard we try to ignore it.

Today I pray that my heart and mind remain open to the ways of God’s power and love.

Deacon Susan Erickson