Trinity is about to end and I find my prayer practices are limping feebly toward its conclusion, just as they have limped feebly through most of Trinity. When I reflect on the expanse of the last twenty-something weeks I see, in my mind’s eye, a desert landscape. It is a dry, rocky expanse. It reminds me of the Coachella Valley: bordered by low-lying hills, roughly textured by boulders, sand, scrubby sagebrush, sheer sandstone cliffs, and little green-trunked trees that bloom with bright yellow flowers…
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Psalm 145 always stands out to me when it comes up in the lectionary because a portion of it forms an older version of the prayer for grace before a meal: “The eyes of all wait upon Thee, O Lord, and Thou givest them their meat in due season; Thou openest Thy hand and fillest all things living with plenteousness.” I love the image of everyone waiting to receive their meal--that’s a familiar image and it’s awe-inspiring to think of everything and everyone in the world doing that at once. It’s significant in the context of the Psalm, though, because it proceeds from the logic of kingship. The Psalmist repeatedly extols the permanence of God’s kingship and how the provision that all expect follows from their reliance on this permanence.
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