A Prayer for the 99% AND the 1%

“Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in Thee.” (Psalm 16: 1)

Last Sunday, my friend and fellow associate pastor preached a thought-provoking sermon on the Occupy Movement, challenging us to “occupy” the public sphere with our faith, just as the Spirit of Christ occupies us in our baptism.

With that sermon still reverberating in our church community, I’m mindful of one of the striking features of the movement, namely its sense of itself.  While many struggle to apply labels to what the occupiers believe, it seems they have a great deal of conviction, a sense that they have it “right” and that the masses shuffling in and out of the office suites around them have lost their way.   If anything, inasmuch as they target their protests against the 1 Percent, they seem to understand themselves to be among the 1% mobilizing for change, while the 99% blindly continues on a path that they see as destructive and life-diminishing.

One wonders, though, if they too have had moments of doubt, that though they have cultivated the emergence of vibrant communities and have boldly declared their occupation to be more than a temporary festival of idealism, whether the cold, boredom or the tendency of  human beings to act not so nice even when they are working towards good, has given them pause and made them feel insecure in who they are, or what they are doing.

Psalm 16 sounds like a prayer for just a moment as this.  Its voice is one who appears supremely confident, but in a moment of fear or insecurity, needs to proclaim that confidence aloud to regain a former strength of conviction.  The Psalmist articulates a complete trust in God, while also outlining the dangers of deviating from that trust, almost as a reminder to his or herself not to stray, not to seek after gods that are false and only increase sorrows by taking away all of the strength and security they have in God.

Indeed, Psalm 16 seems like a good prayer for both the 1% and the 99% of us.  Because whether we think we have it all and are afraid of losing it, or think the world has lost it all and needs to be reclaimed, we’re reminded in praying with the Psalmist that our strength lies not in our conviction, or lack thereof, but in God.

Here’s the Psalm, which I offer to you as a prayer for the day. It can articulate where you are, or better yet, where you’d like to be:

Psalm 16

 ¹ Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You. 

² I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; 
I have no good besides You.” 
³ As for the saints who are in the earth, 
They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight. 
⁴ The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied; 
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, 
Nor will I take their names upon my lips.

 ⁵ The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; 
You support my lot. 
⁶ The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; 
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.

 ⁷ I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; 
Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night. 
⁸ I have set the LORD continually before me; 
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 
⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; 
My flesh also will dwell securely. 
¹⁰ For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; 
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. 
¹¹ You will make known to me the path of life; 
In Your presence is fullness of joy; 
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Amen!