January 6th and a Prayer

It is a cruel joke that we have been reading and chanting Psalm 72 all week, including this Day of Epiphany. The Revised Common Lectionary calls for it, but Oh Lord, how now it is timed with the “January 6th” Capitol Insurrection of 2021 remembrance and the 2024-25 Presidential Transition and the January 20th Inauguration, to say nothing of laying to rest President Carter this week. Frankly, I can barely write his name, Trump, there, I did it, but his name is written all over Psalm 72 as one who does the exact opposite of what is prayed for considering leadership.

First of all, it’s amazing, and a tribute to the hard war fought in blood and bullets in 1774-1783 and the hard work of the people for free and fair elections over all the years and the battles, civil rights of the ‘60’s included, to say nothing of the 1861-1865 Civil War, that we have a President rather than a King for whom we pray.

And pray we do, that the President, not the King (and make no mistake, 47th wants the power of a King), “rule [the] people righteously and the poor with justice” (Ps. 72:2). President Jimmy Carter said that he’s like to be remembered for “peace and human rights.” I believe he will be that, and for being the first President to name the Climate Change challenge and take action for renewable energy. It is a stark judgment against us, the American people, that we would elect the 47th because of the price of eggs and the prejudiced sight (skin color) and sound (language) of migrants all the while that we are exactly the ones who brought our exploitative economy (watch the price of eggs when you overrun indigenous hunting and farming grounds) and strange white skin and English (to say nothing of disastrous diseases) to this continent and dismissed, diminished and destroyed the Indigenous Americans as if they were less than human and had no right to exist.

Imagine the 47th, as Psalm 72:4 implores: “Let him defend the needy among the people, rescue the poor and crush the oppressor.” My goodness, instead the 47th deplores the needy (“I like people who don’t get captured”), exploits the poor (“I love the poorly educated”) and is the oppressor.

As 2025 dawns and Psalm 72 provides a pattern for prayer for this incoming American Administration, I will see if I can continually pray this prayer. As a Christian, one who sees Jesus of Nazareth as the one who embodies the kingship described here (vs. 11: “May all kings bow down before him, and all the nations do him service”), my hope is that the 47th would actually read the Bible and not simply hold it (upside down!) to feign faith, and come to his senses and see that he, 47th, is not God’s gift to humanity but that Jesus Christ is just that. And because of that, Jesus as “King,” all in power and position (including American Presidents) should “rule people righteously” and “the poor with justice.”