This week, I invite you to ponder prayerfully, slowly savoring Psalm 46 with me. This is a hymn of trust, a hymn of awakening awareness to the Holy hovering and humming in our lives. This is a reminder that God is a close as our next breath. As you read the passage below from the NRSV, note the word, “Selah”, this simply means, “pause”. It is a stop sign, a rest, a chance to catch your breath and open your sacred imagination to the words you just read. Secondly, hymns are not meant to be read silently, as if to be confined and contained in your mind. Hymns in the Hebrew prayer/songbook of the Psalms were/are meant to be proclaimed aloud. So, read this aloud, noticing where you put the emphasis. For example, is it, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Or is it, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble!!!” Or is it, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble??? (As in, did you read the headlines this morning!?!)” Do you speak this with confidence or curiosity or a lot of questions. You may need to read the words below aloud two or three times. Take your time, savor these words slowly, like you would an ice cream cone on a warm Florida day. Once you’ve read it a few times, I’ll be back to wrap us up.
From the New Revision Version
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah/Pause
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar; the kingdoms totter;
God utters God’s voice; the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah/Pause
Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
God makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
God breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
God burns the shields with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations;
I am exalted in the earth.”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah/Pause
Which word or phrase stuck and stood out for you today? Where do you have questions or insights or want to know more? Let this Psalm/Holy Hebrew Hymn/Prayer book roam and rummage around your life today.
God, whose Presence enfolds and holds me, meet me amid the foaming, frustrating chaos of the weary world today. Melt the moments of fear that get caught in the back of my throat with Your grace that grows in my life morning-by-morning so that today new mercies of Your loving-kindness I will be aware and aware of every moment. Amen.
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