Random thoughts on a few Psalms

There have been three thoughts roaming around my mind over the last week in response to the psalms I am reading daily.

First, in Psalm 26 vs 3 gives the image of walking with the truth...followed up by the psalmist singing that she does not stand with the foolish in vs. 4.  There are two thoughts to these two short verses.  To begin, the psalms often echo from verse to verse.  Or as a seminary professor once asked, "Why is the psalm repeating itself?"  This is a style of poetry in the time of the psalms, where a statement would be made in one verse, then slightly altered, but essentially saying the same thing, in the very next verse.  This can be a bit repetitive...it can be a bit redundant (pun totally intended).   But sometimes we need to hear something more than once.  When the psalm echoes itself, it is trying to shout out, "Pay attention!!  This is important!'  Which leads me to the second thought, which is that these two verses are actually a reverberation of Psalm 1.  Psalm 1 sets up a vision of the world/an orientation where the righteous thrive and the wicked are whisked away like chaff on the wind.  Now the world doesn't always work that way.  But the other opening image of Psalm 1 is a reminder to be careful where you walk (the direction your toes are pointing)...standing around...and sitting with.  Sounds like advice my mom would give me ("Be careful who your friends are!)  That is true whether we are ten or forty!  So, the image is repeated here to emphasize that even 25 psalms later, that original lesson still stands and is one for us to continue to be aware of in our lives.

Second, Psalm 30...is an individual psalm of thanksgiving.  In the fourth verse we hear, "You (God/ spirit/ life) brought me up from Sheol, from the pit (which is another example of repetition; Sheol and pit are both seen as low dwelling places) and gave me life".  The word for life here is "nefesh"...as in Psalm 23, you restore my life...nefesh.  This is a life breath, flow, energy, enlivening spirit that animates all of us...helping us feel fully alive.  The psalmist is saying, "Thank you, God."  Or as Eckhart once said, "If the only prayer we ever utter is, 'Thank you,' it would be enough."  Yet, often I don't thank God from whom all blessings flow.  I am quick to point out when life is difficult or challenging.  I am quick to pray for an empty parking spot when running late...but rarely do I ever really give thanks.  Thank you is a central prayer.  Not because God needs to be thanked for all the blessings...but we need to say, "Thank you."  We need to name and notice the grace flowing through our lives because it can change us.  Giving thanks...not for all situations...but in all situations is one way we stay open to grace.  Or as verse 12 of this Psalm states, "You turn my dirge into dancing".  It is more commonly translated, "You turn my mourning in dancing."  Both remind us of God's grace even in difficulty.  I wonder if Psalm 30 was playing somewhere in Jesus' mind when in the sermon on the mount he would audaciously say, "Blessed are those who mourn."  Not because there is mourning, but because brokenness is never the last word.

Third, Psalm 31...goes from thanksgiving to lament.  Life does that.  One minute all is good.  But then a phone call comes or a doctor's appointment or someone we care about abruptly ends the relationship.  We can go from dirge to dancing...and back again.  This is what counter part to "Thank you"...which is (as Anne Lamont says) "Help me."  It is an honest prayer.  So often we ask God to help because we are afraid or ashamed to ask another person.  We don't want to seem needy or beholden to someone's generosity.  We don't want to let people see that we struggle...that we are not as awesome as we like to think.  We need to not only pray, "Help me."  But also be open to the hope that God's response often comes in the flesh of another.  In the time of the Exodus, the people cried out, "Help me."  God sent a man who stuttered and had a criminal record.  In the time of Exile, the peopled cried out, "Help me."  God sent prophets who didn't just tell people what they wanted to hear, but challenged them!  In the time of Roman occupation, the people cried out, "Help me."  God sent one named Jesus who would break open God's love for all people.  Of course, Moses struggled with the people in Exodus.  The prophets were ignored.  And Jesus ended up on a cross.  Not exactly a great track record for sensing the sacred in our midst.  The psalmist asks God to set her in a wide open place (vs. 9).  When we struggle, we feel confined (between the proverbial rock and a hard place).  So we need that space to breathe and to be in God's presence.

May you continue to ponder prayerfully these holy words...may they sing to your heart.

Blessings