I love the Psalms. The poetry. The imagery. The raw humanity of verses drawn from the heights and depths of wonder and despair, happiness, hopefulness, wariness, worry and, consistently, confidence in the ability and willingness of God to understand. The Psalms model praise for God’s goodness, even as they give us glimpses of how one might grieve or gripe or lash out in anger when that’s what we most need.
It strikes me that the Psalms are the perfect companion for the times we live in now. Some invite us to count our blessings and to extol God’s benefits. Others lament bad circumstances, bad behavior and bad outcomes. Some express profound sadness while others soar to new levels of joy. And then there are the “enemy” Psalms – the ones that demand vengeance, or at least some nasty consequences for those who wreak havoc on our lives.
We tend to shy away from those enemy Psalms, not because we’ve never gotten that mad or imagined the revenge of the righteous, but because calling down all that awfulness – even when it’s deserved – feels wrong. Or maybe it’s just saying it out loud that feels wrong…especially if someone can hear us..
And, of course, God hears us. Always. We’re not fooling God for an instant by pretending we don’t feel what we feel.
I, for one, am fine with asking for fire and brimstone to be hurled at the monstrous virus that is robbing so many of life, liberty and the pursuit of everyday happiness. I have no qualms naming racism, greed and apathy as enemies of both God’s people and God’s peace. Cancer, hunger, homelessness, war… all enemies in my book.
The Psalms give us words that can stretch the full breadth of our emotions. The Psalms help us remember that we are neither first nor alone in feeling what we feel. They connect us to all of history. And they open that connection to clearly and concretely include God in every moment.
The Psalmist writes: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” That is an all-encompassing observation. God makes a gift of ALL our days. It is our job to fully live them. So now notice the very next verse of Psalm 118:
“Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!
Amen.