Tag: Psalm 42

Wednesday, Advent Week 3: Deep

The Psalms of Advent, December 14, 2022

You are invited to light a candle and join me as we finish sitting with Psalm 42 this morning.  You may find this psalm at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2042&version=NRSVUE.  My favorite verse in all of the psalms is found in this one, where “deep calls to deep” (verse 7).  Within each one of us, at the core of our very being, is a Source that birthed us all, that unites us all, that loves us all.  That core goes by many names including heart, soul, spirit, being.  It is our private sanctuary, our Holy of Holies, where our greatest griefs, our most powerful fears, our most joyful experiences commune with the Holy.  Anything and everything is contained and deemed sacred and worthy here.

In this single psalm, #42, the psalmist experiences the myriad of emotions found throughout the Book of Psalms where deep communes with deep:

Deep desire: “My soul longs for you, O God” (vs.1);
Deep questioning: “When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (vs. 2);
Deep grief: “My tears have been my food night and day” (vs. 3);
Deep tension: “Where is your God?” (vs. 3):
Deep memories: “I remember as I pour out my soul” (vs. 4);
Deep joy: “with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving” (vs. 4);
Deep despair: “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” (vs. 5);
Deep faithful resolve: “Hope in God” (vs.5).

Yes, Psalm 42 underscores the barebone honesty where “deep calls to deep” with the conviction that in doing so, the relational connection between human and Divine never wavers.  There simply is no situation too deep for God’s presence, too barren of hope, which is why this psalmist, in the midst of depression and loss, can proclaim:

“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life” (vs. 8).

As we leave this psalm of Advent, I wonder what is deep within you?  What is it that you thirst for?  Have you found satisfaction for that thirst?  In what or whom do you place hope when all seems buried in shadows?  How might these ancient words of an ancient psalmist touch you in the place where your deep calls to deep?

Blessings ~ Rosemary

Photo credit: Rosemary McMahan

Tuesday, Advent Week 3: Where?

The Psalms of Advent, December 13, 2022

You are invited to light a candle and join me as we continue our journey with Advent Psalm 42, found here:  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2042&version=NRSVUE.

As mentioned in the previous blog, the author of this poignant psalm-song-poem was most likely in Babylonian exile or had just returned to Israel, perhaps Jerusalem, and was mourning the ruin and displacement of his Jewish people.  The word that speaks to me this Advent day is where, found in verses 3 and 10:  “Where is your God”?  In these verses, where is both question and demand.

As a minister for twenty years, as a spiritual companion, and as a Christian (along with any spiritual person) living in a secular society, I am quite familiar with the aching and/or cynical question, “Where is your God?”  I’ve heard it asked at the death of an infant.  I’ve heard it demanded after fervent, faithful prayers for a healing that didn’t happen.  I’ve heard it asked in times of natural disasters and horrifying wars.  I’ve heard it asked from good people when bad things happen.  In the dark shadows of a three-year depression and also when I watched helplessly while my mother succumbed to Parkinson’s disease and dementia, I asked it myself.  At times, I still do.  Where are you, God?

I admit that I do not have the theologically definitive answer to the question, “Where is your God when . . . ?”  I can only share my own personal ponderings and convictions.  First, I suspect that many of us imagine God, by whatever name we use, as our personal genie or lucky magic charm.  If we are good, if we are faithful, if we are obedient, if we do the right things and say the right words, then God “owes” us when trouble comes.  When God doesn’t “pay up,” we throw away the lamp, dismiss the genie, toss the charm and look elsewhere.

Secondly, we like to place blame on anyone but ourselves, and God is an easy target.  The problem, though, is that God isn’t the source of sorrow and disappointment.  Often what gets dealt us is a result of our own choices (the gift and challenge of free will) about what we eat, drink, breathe, where we live, who we choose to love, how well we take care of our bodily temples, etc.  And, often our lives are changed by others’ choices and actions, as well as those things over which we have no control.  Wars are a product of human greed, injustice, and evil, not of God.  Many natural disasters affect or kill hundreds of thousands of people because we continue to build where Mother Nature has said we should not.  Those who have lived before us have left a legacy of environmental abuse, along with the careless ways we live now, even though God trusted us to be good stewards of creation.  But it’s much easier to just blame God than to admit our own failings.

Finally, I believe God most waits and makes God’s Self known in the dark places.  The Franciscan contemplative theologian Fr. Richard Rohr has written that Christ didn’t die to “take away our sins” (whatever that actually means) but to take on all human suffering in order to demonstrate the God of love who is ever-present, ever-compassionate, ever caring.  Through my own personal experiences, I believe that the Holy One, the one Who Is, the “living God” (verse 2) will always be present in the darkest shadows where “deep calls to deep” (verse 7) in its rawest, most honest voice.  For myself as a Christian, this hope is the promise and meaning of Christmas.

Blessings ~ Rosemary

Photo credit: Pixabay

Monday, Advent Week 3: Thirst

Psalms of Advent, December 12, 2022

You are invited to join me as we listen to Psalm 42, the second to last of the Advent psalms for this season of seeking, waiting, anticipating, and searching for the light that shines in the darkness.  Psalm 42 is familiar to many people because of the memorable imagery of the first verse:  “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, my God.”  The entire psalm may be found here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2042&version=NRSVUE. 

Have you ever longed for water?  Have you ever been really, physically, thirsty?  A long, hot hike on an August day in the middle of a desert in Utah taught me about thirst and the very real, human desire for water.  Halfway through the hike, under a blazing sun, I had finished my water.  It would take two hours to get back to the car and then to a gas station or café, and I passed no one who might share some water on the way.  When I finally found water, it was with great relief, gratitude, and rejoicing.

Have you ever longed for something else, been really, spiritually, thirsty?   Such is the case for the psalmist here. While he is most likely lamenting exile and the dispersion of his people, the Jews, this poem speaks to any of us in general terms of danger, loneliness, threats, grief, depression, anxiety, trust, and hope.  No matter who we are or what we believe, we have all, at times, been thirsty for an answer, an assurance, a justice, a reckoning, a solution, a Love that is bigger than our situation.

Thirst is not a choice, preference, or whim.  Because we are human, water is a necessity for life.  For this psalmist, so is God.  I go back to Psalm 1 and the image of the tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in due season.  Sometimes we do, indeed, go through parched seasons, but the hope that this psalm places in God is that these times are just that, seasons, and that if we stay grounded in the Divine, in the Mystery, in Love, in Light, we will again yield fruit.  This promise is one I root in my heart.

Blessings ~ Rosemary

Photo credit: Pixabay