Waiting with the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 129-131

 

As you read the three Psalms for today, I wonder, who do you feel like is attacking you?  This may not be literal, but we all feel threatened by “the other” today.  We live in a constant state of fight/flight/freeze/flock/fawn ~ fear is the currency that is pontificated from pulpits to pundits to politics to economics.  Yesterday, we prayed, Dayenu, enough-ness of the Eternal, even or especially when we don’t get what we want, when we want it, how we want it.  We live in an age of abundance, but all feel like we gotta get ours while the getting is good, because someone else will take it.  We live in a time when we are more connected than ever, but loneliness and isolation are an epidemic to our health.  We live in a time when we are told and taught that only winning matters, even as we worship God born in a barn and crucified on a cross.  Good Lord, no wonder we are confused, because the messages we receive sound like Chicken Little, “The Sky is falling!”  No wonder, Psalm 129 flows and is followed by Psalm 130, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O God, hear my voice.”  I gravitate toward verse 5 in Psalm 130, “I wait for the Lord; my soul waits.”  To be sure, waiting can feel like an affliction, especially when we don’t feel, “safe and secure from all alarms”.  Waiting can feel like an attack when our Spidey senses are always searching for something that isn’t good enough.  Waiting can feel like an offense when we are oppressed.  We don’t like that the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, a whole generation.  We don’t like that the Exile was at least that long, if not longer.  We want to see progress, and we want to see it yesterday.  But waiting need not be passive, read Psalm 131:

 

God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain.
I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans.

I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.
Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.

Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!

 

Can/do I trust that these words are true?  Can I live these words resting in the enough-ness of God?  Those questions are never answered once and for all.  These questions are not one-and-done, but continually creep around the crevices of our lives each day.  May God, who cradles you with love, enfold and hold you in real ways and remind you that you are enough and you are beloved.  Amen.