Winding Down the Psalms

 

Read Psalms 135-137

 

The ending of the Psalms is a rousing and roaring rendition of singing praise at the top of our lungs for all our neighbors to hear.  This week is a Gospel of joy and delight.  Joy that doesn’t need everything perfectly polished or some reward at an imaginary finish line, this is joy uncontained and uncontrolled.  Today, the word “Praise” or “Hallelujah” is repeated.  Where do you feel praise rising from your pinkie toe toward your tongue to be let loose in the world?  Part of Psalm 135 is to look in the rearview mirror of life to remember when and where God showed up.  I am not always good at recognizing God in the moment.  I miss God right in front of me. The mystics say that life is lived forward but understood backwards; we make meaning based on where we have been and what we are experiencing right before us.  Hold this truth.  Praise is not only based on what is, but on what was and the hope of what might be.  When we lean forward, trusting that God is not finished yet, even though the world is bruised and broken, we stay open to God’s unfinished symphony. 

 

That leads right to verse 1 of Psalm 136, “God’s steadfast love endures forever”.  God’s love is unceasing.  Over 25 times, the Psalmist in 136 repeats that refrain of “God’s steadfast love.”  This either means that the Psalmist needed Chat GPT to come up with an alternative suggestion of what to improve the repetition, or that this is one of the main points of the book of Psalms.  God’s steadfast love is the thread and theme that is woven by our Seamstress God into the fabric of life.  Right now, in this beautifully imperfect moment, where do you sense God’s steadfast love knit into your life?  Can you name and notice one place where God’s love holds you?  Remember, it doesn’t have to be splashy or spectacular, in fact, most of the ways God enters our lives is through the holy ordinary of friends, family, fun, honest tears, and being seen as fully ourselves ~ created in God’s image. 

 

In Psalm 137, the writer offers the truth that in moments of captivity, when we feel confined or caged, stuck and stymied between a rock and a hard place (like when Israel was defeated by the Babylonians and sent into Exile), we hang up our harps…the music may stop.  Or maybe tears are their music.  Weeping has a melody of a minor key that God still hears and moves through. To be sure, Psalm 137 doesn’t hold back.  The Psalm ends with the Psalmist gritting his/her/their teeth and demanding God to smite and strike the enemy's children ~ smash their heads against the rock.  Gulp.  Um, that turned violent quickly.  First, it is shocking that this is in the Bible.  Second, I think the Psalmist is encouraging and empowering us to pray our pain, our prayers of revenge to God, rather than taking matters into our own hands.  Sometimes, when I say aloud, “Dear God, kill my enemies.”  Those words shock me spiritually.  And, God already knows that I say things in hushed tones to friends.  Praying our anger, out loud, when we feel in exile ~ when we feel unseen, unheard, and unloved.  You can either process or push down the pain.  The three Psalms today are a rollercoaster from praise to pain ~ which verses connect to your soul?  Which verses did you think went to one extreme?  Which verses might God be asking you to sit with, the heartfelt honesty alongside the holiness we all need in these days?  May these words provoke our prayers and praise and openness to the Presence of God this week.  Amen.