Tag Archives: Hope

Psalm 131 The Humble Child of the Mothering God

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Statue of a mother with children at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa. Photo by Alessandro Giudice CC by SA 4.0

Psalm 131

A Psalm of Ascents. Of David.

1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
  my eyes are not raised too high;
 I do not occupy myself with things
  too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
  like a weaned child with its mother;
  my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD
  from this time on and forevermore.

This short psalm is striking for its central metaphor where the faithful one is a dependent child and LORD is the mother who is the safe and comforting place the child goes to. Jesus will later tell his disciples

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18: 3-5

Humility plays a central role in both the posture of the psalmist and the posture that Jesus is encouraging in his disciples. The hearers are encouraged to have, “Utter trust in and childlike dependence on God for life and the future.” (NIB IV: 1209) The first verse points to the humble and childlike stance of the psalmist, while the second verse introduces the central metaphor of the childlike speaker and the mothering God who comforts and quiets the speaker’s being, and the third verse expands this posture to Israel whose hope is in the nurturing presence of God.

The heart in Hebrew thought is not the seat of emotion but the seat of will and direction, so the heart not being lifted up is not about being in an exalted emotional state but instead the inner intention of the psalmist is to remain in one’s proper state. The eyes are the outward facing representation of this stance, and they are also not raised too high. The psalmist focuses on the simple things and rather than concentrate their will and striving on great and marvelous things, they rest in their dependence on God. The triple negative of the first verse demonstrates verbally the stance of humility the psalmist has towards God and the world. If this psalm comes from David, as its attribution indicates, it paints the picture of a king who understands their limits and who places honor where it belongs. The king becomes the child needing to be quieted by the nurturing mother God.

The use of feminine imagery for God is relatively rare in the bible, but it does occur. Isaiah uses a similar image of a mother and a nursing child:

Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will never forget you. Isaiah 49: 15

The psalmist has been calmed and quieted in their innermost being. The Hebrew nephesh, rendered soul by the NRSVue, is the most essential part of life and the self but it does not have the sense of soul that is separate from the body and continues beyond life.[1] The Hebrew gamal translated by the NRSVue as weaned can mean either ‘sated’ or ‘weaned.’ If the word is translated ‘sated’, the image of the child is that of an infant who is relaxing after feeding where the hands and legs relax and the child may fall asleep on the mother’s breast or look up at their mother with a satisfied look. If the word is translated ‘weaned,’ as most translations do, the child is coming to the mother for comfort, nurturing, and a loving embrace instead of food. Normally in the bible the context indicates that gamal be translated as a weaned child but here the context allows for either interpretation. With the theme of humility, I like the translation of ‘sated’ with a completely dependent infant on the mother for nutrition, care, and love but ultimately either translation serves the metaphor.

The psalm concludes with the expansion to the people of Israel. The declaration for Israel to hope in the LORD echoes the identical declaration in Psalm 130:5 linking the two psalms together in their conclusions. The God who provides rescue from the desperate situation is the same God who quiets the inner being of humble on like a mother comforts her child. In de Profundis (Psalm 130) the petitioner waits on the LORD more than one who waits for morning, but in Psalm 131 the comforted child can be at peace in the present moment and know that their hope for the future is in the steady, comforting mother-like love of God which calms and quiets them both in the present and forevermore.

[1] The Greek philosophical idea of soul, which many Christians assume is the biblical idea, where the soul is imprisoned in the body and is liberated at death is not the perspective of the Old or New Testament. This enters Christian thought through theologians in the church influenced by Neo-Platonic philosophy (like Augustine).  

Review of The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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Five Star Book Review

TJ Klune, The House in the Cerulean Sea

For me a five-star book is something that either I want to read again or something that is so profound it makes an immediate impact. There are lots of ways that books can be compelling: a unique idea, an interesting set of characters, a complex plot, an artistic use of the English language and more. Reading is also a subjective experience, so what appeals to me as a reader may be very different for you. I read a lot for both pleasure and work, but these short reviews are a way for me to show my appreciation for the work and the craft of the author of the reviewed work.

The House of the Cerulean Sea surprised me. It started out as a book with a pretty standard anonymous dehumanizing government agency and a main character, Linus, who as a case worker is both completely committed to the rules of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth and yet maintains the ability to see the magical youth as human. On the one hand the story is full of tropes: the dehumanizing bureaucracy, the rule follower who learns to trust his heart, an orphanage that attempts to provide children with a home, the inability of non-magic people to accept those different from them, finding one’s true family and love. The tropes are there and the story is predictable and yet sometimes tropes work because they express something fundamental to the experience of being human. Most people have experienced dehumanizing environments in some shape, not everyone is a rule follower but those who are typically find a time when the rules do not work, the desire for love, home, and acceptance are universal human needs. Sometimes we need characters that are not traditionally human to remind us of what humanity is all about.

It is the children in the story that really shine more than the two adult characters. Linus and Arthur, the caretaker of the orphanage, each have their roles to play in the protection of the children, the island, and the orphanage, but it is the way the children form a relationship with Arthur that transforms him more than anything else. Talia, a gnome, Sal, a shape shifting boy, Phee, a forest sprite, Chauncey a creature who may look monstrous but has a heart of gold, Theodore, a wyvern, and Lucy, an antichrist each in their own way and with their own language open themselves to this outsider who has come to inspect their home. Each bear their own scars from the way they have been treated by the outside world, but they help Linus find his own humanity which has been slowly smothered by his environment before coming to the island. There is an element of a love story between Arthur and Linus which they both struggle to voice and understand but for most of the story this is in the background and the children and their interactions with Linus and Arthur are in the foreground.

This is a book that at moments makes you feel. It can make you feel the desire for home, love, acceptance, and hope for a better future. It is quirky and it is not a story everyone will love. Others may be put off by the same sex relationship between Linus and Arthur. This is a quick read and seeing the children through the eyes of Linus and Arthur, I quickly found them endearing. Despite its tropes and predictability, it was really enjoyable in a comfortable and homey way.

Psalm 130 De Profundis

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A piercingly bright curtain of stars is the backdrop for this beautiful image taken by astronomer Håkon Dahle at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Shared under CC 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_sky#/media/File:Starry_Night_at_La_Silla.jpg

Psalm 130

A Song of Ascents.

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
  2 Lord, hear my voice!
 Let your ears be attentive
  to the voice of my supplications!

 3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
  Lord, who could stand?
 4 But there is forgiveness with you,
  so that you may be revered.

 5 I wait for the LORD; my soul waits,
  and in his word I hope;
 6 my soul waits for the Lord
  more than those who watch for the morning,
  more than those who watch for the morning.

 7 O Israel, hope in the LORD!
  For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
  and with him is great power to redeem.
 8 It is he who will redeem Israel
  from all its iniquities.

Bolded words have comments on translation below.

Psalm 130  is often called De profundis from the Latin rendering of the initial words out of the depths. It is one of my personal favorites as it cries with longing for the steadfast love, forgiveness, and redemption that comes from God. Martin Luther called this psalm, “a proper master and doctor of Scripture” and he would use it as the inspiration for his song “Out of the Depths I Cry To You.”[1] Throughout the reformation the song and the psalm were commonly used at funerals, and “Out of the Depths I Cry to You” was sung at the funerals of Fredrick the Wise, John of Saxony, and Martin Luther. (LW 53:222) Psalm 130 was also sung on the afternoon before John Wesley’s transformational experience at Aldersgate. James L. Mays appropriately calls this psalm, “a succinct but powerful expression of the theme that is at the heart of Scripture: the human predicament and its dependence on divine grace.” (Mays, 1994, p. 405)  

The psalmist cries out to the LORD from the depths, a phrase that can reference the sea[2] but for many readers it is also a metaphor for a desperate situation or depression. The initial two lines start a pattern of two verses stanzas where God is referred to twice. In the first three stanzas the first time the psalmists utilize the name of God (LORD in NRSVue)[3] in the initial verse of the stanza while the second reference is the generic Adonai (Lord in NRSVue). In verses seven the name of God is utilized twice. There is a consistent belief throughout the scriptures that the LORD is a God who hears and is attentive to the voice of the faithful ones, especially in desperate times.

The rapid move in verse three to talking about iniquities implies that the desperate situation referred to by the psalmist crying out from the depths may be due to their own lack of faithfulness. The word iniquities[4] occurs more than two hundred times in the Old Testament, especially in the prophets, to describe sin and guilt. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 928) Yet, the psalmist understands that fundamental to the character of God is forgiveness. The LORD is a God who desires justice, but as James L. Mays says,

The error is to understand the LORD as a god whose principal way with human beings is to watch for iniquities. If that were the case, there would be no hope of anyone. (Mays, 1994, p. 406)

Psalm 130 is one of many places in the Old Testament where we see a God of grace. I have often said to my congregation if you go to the bible looking for a judgmental God you will find one, but if you go to scripture seeking a gracious God you find the patience, forgiveness, and steadfast love of God as a defining characteristic of the God the bible witnesses to. That the LORD is a forgiving and attentive God provides hope for this psalmist who cries out from the depths.

The third stanza with its doubled final line in verse six is what initially captured my attention with this psalm. The psalmist waits and trusts in the LORD with all their being[5] and hopes in God’s word. The verb waits in verse six is not present in Hebrew but needs to be supplied for the translation to make sense. The doubling of more than those who watch for the morning heightens the expectation of the psalm. For me these doubled lines reminded me of keeping watch while in the army at that final watch before the sun rose. I have trouble if it is cold at night getting warm but as soon as the sun comes up my body is typically able to regulate itself better and so for me the longing for sunrise is something I feel intensely in my body. This hope for God with the entirety of one’s being like waiting for the dawning of the new day is a powerful reversal from the depths that the psalm began with.

In the final two verses the psalmist moves from their own situation to that of the people of God and calls on them to hope in the LORD. Just as the LORD has redeemed and rescued the one who call on God from the depths despite their iniquities, now the LORD will redeem Israel from its iniquities and the trouble they have caused. The name of God is now linked to one of the fundamental characteristics of God, steadfast love (hesed). The calling on the name of God twice in this final stanza may be to link the name of God with the characteristic steadfast love (hesed) of God. For the God of Israel, the iniquities of the people are not the final word, steadfast love and redemption are. The God who forgives the individual and rescues them from the depths also forgives and rescues the people. The individual and the people of God wait and hope in the LORD with all their being more than those waiting and watching for the coming of the dawn.

[1] “Out of the Depths I Cry To You” although not as popular as “A Mighty Fortress” or “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word” continues to be sung and it is hymn 600 in the songs of Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

[2] Isaiah 51:10; Ezekiel 27:34; Psalm 69:2.

[3] When the word LORD is capitalized in the NRSV or NRSVue translation of the Hebrew it indicates the four letters of the divine name YHWH (often pronounced Yahweh) are behind it. Hebrew readers will often substitute the Hebrew Adonai to avoid speaking the name of God and risking taking the name of God in vain.

[4] Hebrew ‘awonot.

[5] The Hebrew nephesh often translated soul in English is a very different concept than most modern conceptions of ‘soul.’ For Hebrew the nephesh is about life and not about something that is freed after death.

Psalm 129 Hope in the Midst of Oppression

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Farewell Melody by Ravil Akmaev Shared under the Creative Commons 3.0

Psalm 129

A Song of Ascents.

1 Often have they attacked me from my youth
 —let Israel now say—
2 often have they attacked me from my youth,
 yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed on my back;
 they made their furrows long.
4 The LORD is righteous;
 he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion
 be put to shame and turned backward.
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops
 that withers before it grows up,
7 with which reapers do not fill their hands
 or binders of sheaves their arms,
8 while those who pass by do not say,
 “The blessing of the LORD be upon you!
 We bless you in the name of the LORD!”

Bolded words have notes below on translation.

Psalm 129 speaks a defiant word of confidence that the oppression they have experienced will ultimately be responded to by the God who sees their oppression. Living faithfully does not prevent the faithful from suffering but the faithful trust that God will not allow the oppressors to prevail but will act on behalf of the oppressed one. The psalm begins with the Hebrew word rabbat (translated Often in the NRSVue) a word that can indicate either frequency (as the NRSV and NRSVue indicate) or severity (NIV greatly). The psalm begins with the impression of an overwhelming and continual oppression by an unnamed enemy. The individual describes their pain metaphorically like their back being plowed like a field being prepared for harvest. Isaiah uses a similar image when God promises to deliver the people from their tormentors:

And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, “Bow down, that we may walk on you,”and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to walk on. Isaiah 51:23

And Micah speaks similarly of Jerusalem:

Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple a wooded height. Micah 3:12

The word translate cord (Hebrew ‘abot) can refer to the cords used to guide animals when plowing, continuing the metaphor of verse three, or it can refer to instruments of punishment used to inflict pain, making the wounds on the back metaphorically referred to as furrows. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 924) Without the intervention of the LORD the life of the poet would be similar to the character portrayed in Metallica’s song “The Unforgiven”

They dedicate their lives to running all of his

He tries to please them all, this bitter man he is

Throughout his life the same, he’s battled constantly,

This fight he cannot win

A tired man they see no longer cares

In contrast to the man who suffers in the lyrics of “The Unforgiven” the poet has hope that there is one who sees their oppression and acts to right the wrongs they have endured. Who cuts the cords that have cut them, who turns them backward and brings them to shame, who causes their lives to dry up like grass without soil of any depth.

Hate, in both Hebrew and English, is an emotionally charged word, but there are difference in meaning. In Hebrew to hate another person, “usually implies a distancing of oneself from the other person or thing rather than wishing the other harm.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, pp. 924-925) Within the poem the poet asks that the one who “hates” not receive the “blessing” of the LORD. The psalmist expects a world where the hate of the enemy is turned away and loses its power, much like the narrative of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 where he is brought in to curse the people of Israel and instead can only give words of blessing.

Like the suffering servant of Isaiah 50 and 53, the writer of Psalm 129 undergoes suffering and yet endures trusting in God’s eventual reversal of their situation. Like the suffering servant in Isaiah, this psalm brings the suffering of the individual and the suffering of the people together and speaks of them interchangeably. While reflecting on this psalm I was reminded of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians:

4 but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: in great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors and yet are true, 9 as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and look—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, 10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything. 2 Corinthians 6: 4-10

Paul, like this psalmist, is willing to endure suffering because he trusts that God sees and responds to his suffering. The psalm incorporates both the suffering of an individual and the suffering of the people of God who speak with a defiant faith that the LORD is a God who hears the suffering of the people, cuts the cords of the oppressors, and holds the judgment of the wicked in God’s hands.

Psalm 126 Carrying in the Sheaves Planted in Tearful Moments

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Wheatsheaves in a Field (1885) by Vincent van Gogh

Psalm 126

A Song of Ascents.

1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,
  we were like those who dream.
 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
  and our tongue with shouts of joy;
 then it was said among the nations,
  “The LORD has done great things for them.”
 3 The LORD has done great things for us,
  and we rejoiced.

 4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
  like the watercourses in the Negeb.
 5 May those who sow in tears
  reap with shouts of joy.
 6 Those who go out weeping,
  bearing the seed for sowing,
 shall come home with shouts of joy,
  carrying their sheaves.

Bolded words have notes on translation below.

Psalm 126 follows a common pattern in the psalms and throughout the scriptures. It begins with a remembrance of the ways God has acted on behalf of the people in the past and then moves to an appeal for God’s action in the troubles of the present. As J. Clinton McCann Jr. states, “We live in the hope of God’s help always remembering what God has done in the past…and always anticipating what God will do in the future.”(NIB III:1196) The imagery of sowing and reaping have led to the Psalm’s usage on Thanksgiving Day in worship (Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary) and it inspired Knowles Shaw’s song “Bringing in the Sheaves.”

The psalm is structured around two uses of a Hebrew idiom translated “restored our fortunes” in the NRSVue. The phrase is difficult to render in English and has led to a wide variety of translations, but in the prophets it relates to the change in condition brought about by God turning away from God’s wrath and again regarding the people with favor. (Mays, 1994, p. 399) The use of the phrase often refers to the return of the exiles to the homeland of Israel (Deuteronomy 30:3; Jeremiah 30: 3, 18; 32:44; Ezekiel 39:25) and here it may also refer to a homecoming of the exiles from Babylon. (NIB III: 1195) The specific context that the psalm originally spoke to is not required for the reader to understand the relief and joy of those who have experienced the great things God has done for the people of the psalmist. The dreamy state of the remembered joy and laughter of the people emerges from the ways God has provided for and protected the people in the past. From the memory of what God has done in the past comes the hope of God’s action in the present.

Wadi in Nahal Paran, Negev, Israel By Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia – Photograph taken by Mark A. Wilson (Department of Geology, The College of Wooster).[1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3140024

The experience of the present is one described metaphorically by the dry watercourses of the Negeb. During the rainy season these creek beds are filled with water but now in the metaphor of the psalm they are dry. Psalm 42 used the imagery of thirsting for water as a metaphor for thirsting for God’s presence:

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. Psalm 42:1

The prophet Joel will also use a similar image:

In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water; a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the Wadi Shittim. Joel 3:18

It is possible as Walter Beyerin argues that the author of Psalm 126 utilized Joel as a source of imagery as the psalmist, in his reconstruction, attempts to deal with the disappointment that prevailed in Judah after the return from Babylon (NIB III: 1196) but the beauty of the psalms is their ability to fit circumstances frequently encountered in life. Most people can relate to the imagery of drought in the personal, relational, economic, and spiritual struggles of life. The desire for the tears of today to turn to shouts of joy and a desire for the pain of the present to have some harvest of meaning in the future. To live in anticipation that the God who brings an end to the dryness of the watercourses of the Negeb will also turn tears into joy as people come in carrying the sheaves planted in these moments of hardship.

A Small Light in Winter- A Christmas Story

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Frozen lake Baikal near Olkhon Island, Photo by Sergey Pesterev, Shared under CC 4.0https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal#/media/File:Lake_Baikal_in_winter.jpg

It had been a difficult several years for Father Petrov. They had laid several of the men of his congregation to rest as casualties of the War to End All Wars between 1914 and 1917. Then came the unrest which led to the October revolution where the Bolsheviks gained control and a pall of fear was cast over the community as the official position of the new government considered the Russian Orthodox Church as a symbol of the old allegiances to the Czar. Yet even last Christmas he had celebrated in a beautiful church in Moscow with an ornate iconostasis of golden painted saints and angels as incense hung in the air and the congregation sang the chants into the night to mark the night of the Savior’s birth. But as 1918 unfolded the new government began to make its mark on Moscow. Food was in short supply and so the leaders began to point to those who had formerly been nobles, the educated, and then to the ornate and beautifully domed structures of the Orthodox churches of the city. It had been a dreary October day when worship was interrupted by uniformed men who came in arresting Father Petrov and all who had dared to assemble on that day, torching the church and sending Father Petrov and his flock on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Irkutsk where they were marched along the shore of Lake Baikal to a bleak camp where they were officially to be reeducated, but it quickly became clear that ultimately they were moved to this land to be forgotten, to pass away in the Siberian winter.

Yet, despite the cold nights and inadequate shelter, Christmas arrived in 1918. There were no songbooks, no incense, no wall of icons or brightly painted walls of a church. Olga, one of his faithful members, had managed to grab seven candles and set them up in the large shed where the tools that were used for coal mining were stored. Father Petrov had a bible and as he carried his lamp to the shed where those who would celebrate this bitterly cold Christmas were gathered, he wondered what he would do without the rituals and relics of the church that had formed him for a style of worship that had endured for centuries. As he approached the shed, he looked to the lantern in his hand and thought of Jesus’ words about a lamp needing to be placed on a lampstand and not being hidden under a bushel basket, and so he found a small table and placed his lamp on it. More people than he had expected had gathered, others in the work camp seeking a small light in winter, a taste of hope in the hopelessness, a reminder of a different world, and perhaps they looked to each other in this land of the forgotten for another soul to see them and remind them that they mattered.

Father Petrov breathed in the cold air and began with the words from John’s gospel, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Then he lit the first candle and said, “and we are witnesses to that light.” Little Anya, who had seen far more than any young child should see in the last months, echoed Father Petrov’s words, “we are witnesses to that light.” And slowly at first and then in rapidly increasing numbers the remainder of the gathered congregation echoed, “and we are witnesses to that light.” Then Olga, Anya’s mother, read from the prophet Isaiah how, “The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined.” Then Olga lit the second candle and said, “and we are witnesses to that light.” This time the community responded immediately and with more force, “and we are witnesses to that light.”

Anya now stepped up beside her mother and said the words she had been practicing for this night, how the prophet Isaiah continued saying, “Unto us a child has been born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Great will be his kingdom, and there will be endless peace.” Then Anya lit the third candle and with the boldness of a child proclaimed, “and we are children of God’s son.” The congregation with a little bit of joy at seeing the faith of a child echoed, “and we are children of God’s son.”

Russian Orthodox Icon of the Archangel Gabriel

Then Rita came forward to tell of how the angel Gabriel came to Mary one fateful night and told Mary, “Do not be afraid.” How often God’s messengers came to God’s people in scary times and told them not to be afraid but before she continued on she brought out from her coat an icon of the angel Gabriel that she had saved from the church before it had been destroyed, and she told of the angel’s message of the virgin Mary and Mary’s words in response, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then Rita lit the fourth candle and said, “And we are servants of the Lord.” The community echoed, “And we are servants of the Lord.” Then Rita’s husband Jusef came and told of Joseph, the father of Jesus, who was a righteous man trying to find a way between what God expected of him in the law and mercy for his betrothed Mary who was found to be with child, and how the angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and spoke again the words, “Do not be afraid.” And then explained to Joseph that the child to be born was from God and was the fulfillment of prophecy. “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” Perhaps we too need to hear in this godforsaken place that God has not forsaken us, indeed God is with us. And then lighting the fifth candle Jusef declared, “And we serve the God who is with us.” And the community echoed, “And we serve the God who is with us.”

Russian Orthodox Icon of the Nativity

Then Victor came forward and he also took from his coat an icon that had been one from his home, an icon of the Christmas scene, and he told the story from the gospel of Luke of Joseph and Mary coming to Bethlehem and finding no place other than a shed, perhaps not unlike the shed they gathered in that night, and the child was born to them, unseen by relatives or most of the world. But how in the night the angel of the Lord came to shepherds and again told them, “Do not be afraid.” And the angel told the good news of great joy for all the people he had been entrusted with and told these shepherds how to find the child and its parents. How the heavenly host broke into song and the shepherds in their amazement went to find Mary and Joseph and the child promised to them, and described their amazement to anyone who heard, and how Mary treasured these things in her heart. Then Victor said, “And we too treasure these things in our heart.” He lit the sixth candle as the congregation echoed, “And we too treasure these things in our heart.”

Finally, Sophia, the oldest living member of the community at seventy-five years old, came to the front and turned to the gospel of John. She said in a clear voice, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.” She lit the final candle and said, “And we are servants of that light.” To which the congregation responded, “And we are servants of that light.” Father Petrov gave a final blessing in the cold winter night and summarized how we were indeed servants of the light who brings light to people living in darkness, who promises us a child who will lead us into a time of peace, who tells his servants not to be afraid, how even in godforsaken places how our God is with us, how we too can treasure these things in our hearts, for the one who was with God in the beginning at creation is here among us bringing light and life into our darkness. He uttered a final blessing for this flock gathered in the shed and then they made their way back to their barracks where they would attempt to shelter from the piercing wind blowing over the lake. But as the left they carried with them a little hope in what before had seemed hopeless, and a small light in the winter.

This story has historical elements, but it is a fictional story. The place and time are real, but the specifics of the situation and the characters only existed in my imagination prior to this night. May this Christmas story from a cold and dark world bring a little light into your season.

Psalm 94 Thy Kingdom Come

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Marc Chagall, Solitude (1933)

Psalm 94

1 O LORD, you God of vengeance, you God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; give to the proud what they deserve!
3 O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the stranger, they murder the orphan,
7 and they say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
8 Understand, O dullest of the people; fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who disciplines the nations, he who teaches knowledge to humankind, does he not chastise?
11 The LORD knows our thoughts, that they are but an empty breath.
12 Happy are those whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law,
13 giving them respite from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot is slipping,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who contrive mischief by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous, and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will repay them for their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out.

James L. Mays begins his comments on this psalm by quoting a line from Maltbie D. Babcock’s song “This is my Father’s world”: “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” (Mays, 1994, p. 302) The opening line of the psalm names God as the God of vengeance, and yet God’s vengeance is necessary to avenge the wrongs done to the vulnerable and powerless who suffer in an unjust society. Because of this beginning this is sometimes called a psalm of vengeance, yet it is important to realize this vengeance is an action to restore society and to undo the work of those who utilize their positions of power to oppose God’s justice on earth and to oppress the ones God promised to defend. Much as the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer call for “God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven,” this psalm calls on God to act in concrete and visible ways to repair a society that has become controlled by those who have abandoned the ways of the covenant righteousness.

The proud and wicked have prospered in the society the psalmist lives in and they have turned the dream of a just society on its head. They have killed and oppressed the widow, the stranger, and the orphan who God has promised to protect, and who the leaders who work on God’s behalf are to ensure justice for. These arrogant evildoers perceive that they are not bound by the requirements of the law for the God of Israel has not acted to judge them. In their view, “without God everything is possible.” (Brueggemann, 2014, p. 407) These wicked ones view the LORD the God of Israel as either unwilling or unable to respond to their actions which violate God’s command, oppress the vulnerable among God’s people, and threaten God’s own heritage.

The psalmist testifies to the tension of an unjust present and a life in hopeful expectation of God’s intervention in the world. In the present the wicked are prospering and crime does pay. (NIB IV: 1019) To challenge this honest observation of the present the psalmist relies on the language of the wisdom tradition in scripture. The proud, arrogant, wicked evildoers who profit by oppressing and murdering the vulnerable and believe that God does not see or hear about their actions are foolish. The wise are glad to be disciplined by God and God’s law, but the foolish will ultimately perish. They may prosper in the moment, but that moment is an empty breath.[1] Yet, even though their time in power may be short the threat to the vulnerable is acute and needs God’s intervention.

In the meantime, the psalmist also testifies to the ways God has continued to provide respite and protection for the faithful ones in the midst of injustice. In times where their feet were slipping, God held them fast. When their worries were great God provided consolation. Without God’s protection they would dwell in the silence of the dead. These actions of God may not have brought about the fullness of God’s kingdom for the psalmist, but they have been the necessary provision and protection in their time of waiting and the actions which renewed their hope for God’s intervention which they trust is coming.

For people of faith a part of the desire for God to reign as king comes from the experience of injustice in this world and the desire for the God of vengeance to bring God’s justice to those who exploit God’s people and God’s world. When wicked people sit in the positions of power and the laws and statutes that should provide protection have become warped and utilized to oppress, the faithful cry out for God’s reign and God’s vengeance to create a society where the vulnerable are protected and justice prevails. (Mays, 1994, p. 303) The work of the wicked is a concrete and visible reality in the world of the psalmist and the cry of the psalmist is not for some otherworldly deliverance from the toils of this earth. The psalmist demands the judge of the earth to rise up and cause justice to return to the righteous. The prayer is for God’s justice to be a concrete and visible reality which displaces the injustice of the world.

[1] This is the Hebrew hebel which is translated as vanity in Ecclesiastes. The word means ‘vapor, mist, or emptiness.’ It is an evanescent word which points to the impermanence of the object it describes.

Psalm 88 Only Darkness Knows Me

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Marc Chagall, Solitude (1933)

Psalm 88

<A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites. To the leader: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.>
1 O LORD, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
2 let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.
3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; I am like those who have no help,
5 like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a thing of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call on you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O LORD, cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O LORD, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Wretched and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.
16 Your wrath has swept over me; your dread assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long; from all sides they close in on me.
18 You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkness.

Psalms 88 and 89 stand together at the end of book three of the book of Psalms and take us into the darkest despair of the entire book. (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 668) Both prayers are appeals for help that have no resolution within the psalm and while Psalm 89 is a prayer grieving the destruction of Judah and the loss of the promises to the line of David, Psalm 88 is the prayer of an individual who is either metaphorically or physically at the point where, “Death is so near and so real that it becomes the subject of the lament.” (Mays, 1994, p. 282) This is not the type of prayer that was taught in Sunday school, nor is this psalm used in the worship of most churches. Its vision of the world is darker than many churches are comfortable with but it also speaks honestly to the experience of deep darkness that many both inside and outside the church experience. The daring language of the psalm, which is willing to declare that God is responsible for their dire circumstance, turns on the head the vision of Psalm 56:4 or Romans 8:31 as it wonders, “if God is against me, who can be for me?” The psalmist’s words break forth from the dark night of the soul where their abandonment by God and their companions leaves only darkness to know them.

The psalm is attributed to Heman the Ezrahite. It is possible that the intent is to attribute the psalm to Heman who is listed as one of the wise men who Solomon surpasses in 1 Kings 4:31 or Heman the singer, one of the Kohathites appointed by David in 1 Chronicles 6:33. It is also possible that it is the same individual referred to in both 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles (singers/psalmists would be considered wise in Hebrew society) but it is also likely that the Heman referred to in the psalm is a different person unmentioned elsewhere in scripture. Regardless of the authorship of the psalm, it speaks in the brutally honest language of the Hebrew Scriptures that many contemporary Christians have little exposure to.

The psalm begins in a pious cry out to God, crying out to God for God’s attention to the prayers of the one dependent on God’s salvation. The prayer uses three different words for ‘crying out’ to God in verse 1, 9b and 13 (NIB IV: 1027) exhausting the language of prayer as they desperately seek an answer from the God who is both their only hope of salvation and the source of their troubles. The psalm begins with language that would is the traditional language of prayer learned in worship. Yet, once the prayer begins the dam holding back the psalmist’s words breaks and their desperation and abandonment cannot be contained. The pain of the psalmist rushes forth from the shattered walls of convention and flows into an irresistibly honest prayer that emerges from the space of death, darkness, and despair.

The stakes of this prayer are incredibly high for the psalmist. The very center of their life[1] is threatened. The psalmist deploys an incredible number of words for death: Sheol, the Pit, like the dead, slain, grave, those you remember no more, cut off from your hands, in the regions dark and deep, shades (Hebrew Rephaim), Abaddon, darkness, the land of forgetfulness. Almost every line has the presence of death within this prayer. This deployment is especially striking when compared to the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures which rarely talk about death and the afterlife. In verses three to five the mentions of death indicate the serious nature of the psalmist’s petitions but the jarring realization comes in verse six when the psalmist turns their invective to God and declares that God is the one responsible for the psalmist’s situation. God may be the psalmist’s salvation but God is also, in this psalm, the psalmist’s oppressor.

The psalmist girds up their loins and stands before God in accusation declaring that God has put them at death’s door, that God’s wrath is actively overwhelming the psalmist in waves, and God has caused the alienation of the psalmist from their companions. Many Christians are not familiar with this type of accusatory language directed at God and are surprised at the directness of this psalm or Jeremiah’s accusations of God.[2] As mentioned in my comments on Psalm 86 there is a relationship between the servant and their Lord, and here the servant boldly claims that their Lord has violated their relationship. Where the servant needed protection, their Lord has overwhelmed them with wrath. Where the servant looks for a compassionate answer, the answer[3] they receive is unbearable. The actions of God have alienated the servant from both God and their companions making them, like Job, one despised and one cursed by God.

The psalmist’s eyes growing dim is not a statement of eyesight, but indicates that their vitality is failing. Physically and mentally, they are dying and yet they continue to cry out to God. They cry out from a place of “abandonment and lostness…so great that it saturates the soul so there is room for nothing else.” (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 671) But it is heartbreaking that for the psalmist it is God who has cast them into this space of darkness and death and then turns away from their cries. In a series of six rhetorical questions: Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? The answer to each of these rhetorical questions in the vision of the psalmist is no! As mentioned above the Hebrew scriptures rarely talk about death and the afterlife and there is no conception of heaven and hell as destinations for the people of God in the psalms. Psalm 88 deploys this shocking set of questions to the God of life to get their either unresponsive or oppressive God to relent and deliver their servant from death or the relationship will be broken and God will be the unfaithful one who broke it. In the Psalms when the concept of death, Sheol, the Pit, or Abaddon are mentioned it is assumed that there is no longer any communication between the deceased and God.[4] The only freedom this psalm offers the psalmist is the freedom of the dead where God either does not remember or has actively cut off God’s servant. (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 671) Yet the psalmist cries out to their Lord as a servant desiring to continue to serve their God in the land of the living.

The psalmist cries out one final time in verse thirteen. Their prayers come before God and even boldly confront[5] God asking God to relent. God’s anger has left the psalmist in the space of darkness and death. There is no escape for the servant from the anxiety filled and deathly state of the servant’s life. There is no answer as the psalm reaches its final gasp, there is only the cry of the servant thrown “against a dark and terrifying void” (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 669) The final word of the psalm is darkness.[6] The sad final phrase is obscured by the NRSV’s translation. The NIV’s “darkness is my closest friend” or Beth Tanner’s “only darkness knows me” (Nancy de Claisse-Walford, 2014, p. 670) better captures the isolation and abandonment that the psalm closes with. We may rebel against a psalm where death and darkness have the final word, but the book of Psalms reminds us that there are times where the faithful ones of God may find themselves in the God forsaken place where God seems silent, absent, or angry; where relationships prove themselves unfaithful, and where the agonizing prayer breaks forth to God from the death’s door where no light seems to be able to penetrate the darkness of the faithful one’s world.

Nobody would choose to walk into the place of depression and suffering where death and darkness seem to be their only companion, but even people of faith may find themselves in these spaces that appear devoid of God’s steadfast love and compassion. Depression can make the world feel like a place where darkness is the sufferer’s only companion and death may cry out to them. Even faithful people can suffer from bouts of depression so deep that suicide and death seem closer than God. God does not condemn these words of the psalmist as faithless, instead they are placed within the scriptures of God’s people. From a Christian perspective we may answer the rhetorical questions of Psalm 68 differently than the psalmist: from a Christian perspective, to quote Paul, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8) Yet, this psalm invites us to walk into the swampland of the soul, pitch a tent, and get to know the lay of the land. It invites us to dwell in the God forsaken place of the crucifixion without immediately jumping forward to the surprise of the resurrection. Sometimes resurrection takes time, sometimes prayers end in darkness as they await a response from God, and sometimes faithful ones walk through the valley of the shadow of death. This uncomfortable psalm invites us into an honest relationship with God that demonstrates a confrontational or defiant calling upon God to act in compassion and love rather than abandonment or wrath.  We may not like that darkness has the last word and we may want a happy ending to occur within eighteen verses, but sometimes we dwell in darkness and hope for a light which we cannot see but our faith longs for.

[1] The NRSV’s ‘soul’ in verse 3 is the Hebrew nephesh which occurs frequently in the psalms but the modern idea of ‘soul’ comes from Greek thought instead of Hebrew thought. The Hebrew nephesh is closer to ‘life itself’ or ‘the essence of life.’

[2] For example: Jeremiah 15: 17-18, 20: 7-10. Particularly in Jeremiah 20 our English translations often soften the shocking language or Jeremiah.

[3] The Hebrew word translated ‘waves’ also can means ‘answer.’

[4] See for example Psalm 6:5, Psalm 30:9. The contrary point will be argued by Psalm 139:8 where even if the psalmist makes their bed in Sheol, God is present there.

[5] The Hebrew verb qdm can mean either come before or confront.

[6] The final word of the psalm is the Hebrew hoshek (darkness).

Psalm 85 Waiting For God’s Kingdom to Come

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Kiss of Peace and Justice by Laurent de La Hyre (1654) – The figures of Peace (burning the weapons of war) and Justice (holding a sword and scales) embrace in a quiet landscape. The Latin inscription under the antique urn reads “Justice and Peace kissed” (referring to an Old Testament verse, Psalms 85:11). The subject may have had political significance: the painting’s date coincides with the end of the Fronde, a period of civil war in France during which the parliament (courts of appeal) and the nobility sought—unsuccessfully—to limit the power of the monarchy, Taken in 2012, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18176364

Psalm 85

<To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.>
1 LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin. Selah
3 You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.
4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.
8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.
12 The LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.

Throughout the psalms there is a rhythm that moves between the memory of God’s actions in the past, the crisis of the present, and a hopeful vision of the world that God brings when God acts on behalf of the psalmist and the people. God has acted in the past, God hears the cries of God’s people as they endure a time of judgment, but God’s anger will always yield to God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. The crisis which is a part of the people’s wanderings into a spiritual wilderness will be resolved by God’s shalom (peace) and righteousness which are united in embrace. The poetry of hope emerges out of the reservoir of memory which calls the people to return to the practices of faithfulness and to a life in covenant with the LORD.

The narrative of Israel is filled with times when the people turned from the ways of God and do evil in the sight of the LORD and then their God in anger abandons them to their enemies. From the construction of the golden calf and the reestablishment of the covenant (Exodus 32-34) to the pernicious pattern which repeats continually through the book of Judges, David’s betrayal with Bathsheba, Solomon’s adoption of the worship of other gods, and then the various kings of Israel and Judah who do evil and lead the people away from the way of the God of Israel there are numerous touchpoints in the people’s history where they can reflect on how God was anxious to receive their repentance. The LORD has proven that their God does forgive and pardon, does withdraw wrath and turn from hot anger, and does restore the people.

The petitioners ask for what their ancestors have received in the past. God’s anger may be justified but the people cannot endure it much longer. They present no argument for God’s restoration of the people other than God’s history of doing so. They appeal to the steadfast love of God to grant them the salvation they need and to overcome God’s indignation. Yet, the psalmist also desires more than a temporary return to the LORD’s ways. The poet trusts that God will speak shalom to the people. Yet, the end of verse eight in Hebrew is “but let them not return to stupidity.”[1]

The hoped for “renewal, restoration, and revival of the community is completely a gift from God.” (Brueggemann, 2014, p. 369) Poetry moves beyond a tame hope for the restoration of the past and leaps into a beautiful and lyrical vision of a world where the ways of God and the ways of the world unite. They trust that God’s salvation is at hand and that the longed-for reunion will occur after the desperate time of separation. God’s presence and glory will again dwell among the people. God’s hesed (steadfast love) meets with faithfulness among the people. Righteousness (living in the way of the law) and shalom[2] (God’s gift of peace and harmony) embrace in a kiss of reconciliation. Faithfulness grows like the grain from the earth while righteousness comes down like the sun and rain from the heavens. The reconciliation between God and God’s people doesn’t just mean peace for the people, but restoration for the creation as the land yields its increase. This is a beautiful lyrical imagination of what God’s kingdom arriving on earth as in heaven looks like through the poet’s words. Righteousness goes before God on the journey as God’s arrival with steadfast love and peace are at hand.

[1] The NRSV follows the Septuagint (LXX, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) by stating “to those who turn to him in their hearts.” But as Beth Tanner points out the Hebrew (MT) is readable and there isn’t a compelling reason to adopt the LXX reading instead. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 656)

[2] Shalom is not just the absence of conflict. It also includes the idea of wholeness or harmony where people and creation live in comfort without fear. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 658)

Someone Else’s Fortune

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As the slip of paper emerges from the cracked cookie
My eyes focus on words that can only be
Someone else’s fortune

The words may have fitted any number of the possible lives I’ve grieved
Sure, they are supposed to be generic enough to fit many lives
But the particularity of my experiences transgresses the boundaries
Of Someone else’s fortune

This simple sentence of a throw away piece of paper
Becomes a mental pathway to the present that never was to be
To dreams stillborn and paths that receded into the past
An invitation to rumination upon hopes I thought long buried
Of the someone else that those paths would have created
If this wasn’t someone else’s fortune, but mine