Friday, March 4 (Lent Week 0)

 

 

Saskatchewan Glacier, Banff, Alberta
Photo credit: Wilhem Ostrop


Psalm 95

O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.   

Two things struck me this week when reflecting on Psalm 95. The first was the physicality of the description and the second was the contrast in tone between the first and second parts of the psalm.

In the first section of the passage, it’s as if the psalmist wants us to feel God’s creative power in our very hands. I imagined a person sharing these verses with someone who wasn’t able to read them. The speaker with hands cupped together, In his hand are the deep places, cradling, reaching downwards. Then the shift as the palms open slightly, and lift skyward. The hands embody a sense of a great power that can lift up the hills from the earth. Power is transferred to the lofty hills themselves, all while the raising of hands suggests praise. The hands then spread out to take in the vastness of the sea below and before us. We turn from the hill to take in the sea, look down to observe, beneath our feet, the land, formed by God’s hands. We contemplate all that the earth, under God’s touch, produces and nourishes. The psalm then beckons the listener, draws us in, pulls us down, to find the right posture to greet our Creator.

The second part, in its abrupt shift, seems to capture a paradox at the centre of our faith. From chapter one of Genesis we learn of God’s life-engendering creative force. As we move through the Bible, we also learn that God’s creatures, made in His image, commit heinous acts. We learn that the Creator himself judges, chastises and takes action against humanity. How are we meant to understand these forces: the generative and the destructive? How do we reconcile the language of judgement with the promise of grace?

Jesus challenges our notions of tribalism: he ate with tax collectors, visited with society’s outcasts, found friends among fisherman, called out corruption among faith leaders. Jesus, who gave us the parable of The Good Samaritan, asks us to place our loyalty to God above our relationships within our tribes. He builds on the scriptures he knew so well, urging us to conquer not other people, but our own spiritual ailments. The battle shifts to our minds.

We make our Lenten pilgrimage, this year, through particularly divisive times. Rather than focus on the evil we see in others, can we, with God’s help, rout out destructive thoughts within ourselves? Can we embody God’s creative force by embracing ourselves and our neighbours as His children? How can we help His love grow?

For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.   Ezekiel 18:32

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.   Philippians 4:8

 

 - Alison Goodwin

 

“Holy Ghost Unchain My Name” by Elizabeth Cotton



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