Wednesday 08 November 2023

Psalm 16

Background

There are really two stories here, the first ends at verse 15 and concerns God's promise to Abraham that his wife Sarah will bear a child despite her advanced age.

It is easy to see Abraham and Sarah as a lone couple in an isolated spot, but this was never so. There were other nomadic herders and his family is not far away. But the significance of these verses is the visitors. There are three men, but Abraham addresses the Lord in a singular fashion and offers a welcome to the valued guest.

Western theology is ambiguous about the visitors; the texts themselves are unclear about singular and plural, but Abraham addresses one person. The Orthodox tradition understands this story as an early Trinitarian interpretation (God existing as three people) and their iconography, such as the famous Trinity Rublev icon of the 15th century, makes this clear. So Abraham prepares for three honoured guests while only addressing the Lord, Yahweh, in the singular, and it is the Lord who makes the promise.

The second part of today's text concerns the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. God is concerned about how such  places belong in the land he has promised to his people. Abraham knows his nephew Lot and his family are in the city of Sodom and he begins to bargain with the Lord, seeking to temper his wrath.

Abraham’s relationship with God throughout this narrative is one of host and guest; he is in the presence of God, but prepared to question his actions and attempt to move him from one purpose to a lesser action. Do we do this in our prayers? Do we sometimes bargain with God to gain an outcome more in line with our own wishes? Sometimes our use of prayer can slip over to asking God to change his will, or even to act in a way that we feel is more in keeping with our own belief of what is good. This is what Abraham is doing here.

To Ponder:

• How do you feel about speaking to God in this sort of personal way? Do you find the concept of speaking to God a comfortable one?
• What sort of prayer are you comfortable with?  How would you describe the action of praying?