Monday, March 16, 2015

Monday, March 16, 2015

Psalm 89:1-18

“I declare that your steadfast love is established forever;

your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.”

As you meditate on our reading for today, notice the many words that evoke permanence, security, certainty and strength:steadfast, forever, faithfulness, firm, covenant, establish, mighty, etc. This portion of the psalm seems written at a time when the author and the Israelites were well-founded and well-grounded. The security of the kingdom was a sure sign of God’s favor.

            Yet, a few verses later (vs. 38-51) all certainty is gone, any reliable foundation demolished, and the security of God’s favor has evaporated. Meditating on the first eighteen verses is difficult for us today because we know the rest of the story. We know the Davidic kingdom collapsed: “You have removed the scepter from his hand, and hurled his throne to the ground.” (v. 44).

            Is there a way we can fruitfully appropriate this opening section of the psalm for our lives today? Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann has helpfully identified three main categories of psalms: psalms of orientation, psalms of disorientation, and psalms of re-orientation. Psalms of orientation are usually songs of praise to God written during times of prosperity and security. Psalms of disorientation, the ones we often avoid in our liturgies, are those psalms written during times of great distress, when it seems the world is collapsing around the Israelites. These are the psalms of lament and the ones filled with vengeful speech. Finally, the psalms of re-orientation, often the psalms of thanksgiving, are written in a period of stability after the disastrous times of disorientation. According to Brueggemann, times of re-orientation often come as a surprise and pure gift from God.

            These three movements describe the journey of faith. Life has a way of interrupting our days of security and comfort with nights of trouble: divorce, doubt, illness, betrayal, loneliness. But grace is not far behind. The paschal mystery holds out hope that resurrection always follows crucifixion.

            We can learn from the Israelites’ example. Maybe their problem was that they too strongly connected God’s love and favor to times of inner peace and outer security, in this case the success of the Davidic kingdom. The destruction of the empire ambushed their faith.  As you meditate on Psalm 89, identify all those areas of your life or of your church you consider most strong, most secure, and most permanent. What if they all disappeared tomorrow? How would their loss affect your faith? What deeper faith might then be possible?

- David Shumaker