Psalms.
In my estimation there may not be a more enigmatic section of the Bible. At least for me. Something about the way the individual songs were constructed and the use of goats and horses and what not presents a world that, at best, is quite different and far removed from mine. So sometimes I just don’t get what the psalmists are talking about.
In reading through a portion of the Psalms this week, though, I found kindred spirits who spoke from across the expanse of history. I discovered people I had things in common with, people that understood me.
I am always struck by others’ abilities to simply forget about bad things that happen in the world and in their lives. It is as if they gloss over the meaningfully painful events of life in order to maintain a peace that, by all accounts, is fragile and precarious. Some of the psalmists, though, embrace the painful. They cling to the hurtful. They latch on to the uncomfortable. And then they pray to God that God will hear and relieve them. And I think that’s how it’s supposed to be done.
It isn’t healthy to simply replace the frown on your face with a smile like you would a Mr. Potato-head doll. But it’s not healthy to moan and complain and stay stuck in the rut either. No, the lesson from the psalmists is that we must embrace these things in order to fully experience life and then to make our petitions known to God so that we might have life even more abundantly as we rely on our God to not only save us, but experience our condition with us and understand where we are coming from when no one else can.
And that’s why the Psalms have been good to me this week.
Tags: Psalms