By Amber Balista
I encourage you as we have been to read through the psalm a couple of times, taking note of what stands out for you. Listen for what God might be wanting you to hear. I like the Amplified translation of the Bible because I feel like it drawls out the emotion of the psalmist in a way that is most clear to be. Here is Psalm 63 A Psalm of David; when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
1O God, You are my God; with deepest longing I will seek You;
My soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for You, my flesh longs and sighs for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have gazed upon You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
4 So will I bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5 My soul [my life, my very self] is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises [to You] with joyful lips.
6 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate and thoughtfully focus on You in the night watches,
7 For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings [where I am always protected] I sing for joy.
8 My soul [my life, my very self] clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek my life to destroy it Will [be destroyed and] go into the depths of the earth [into the underworld].
10 They will be given over to the power of the sword;
They will be a prey for foxes.
11 But the king will rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him [honoring the true God, acknowledging His authority and majesty] will glory,
For the mouths of those who speak lies will be stopped.
It always amazes me how timely the psalms are for us. How what is most deeply true about Who God is and who we are to God is consistent over time. That includes you, so what is the deepest part of you longing for now? What parts of your life are parched needing to be satisfied by God? It seems to me we too are in a dry and weary land, surrounded with a desire to return to the known. Known activities, freedom to move about and gather with others. Even to share a high-five would be nice. To be sure, there are things happening around us that make no sense. The added anxiety over the unknown seems to lead some to be short tempered, irritable or even irresponsible. Others might be facing restlessness, inability to focus, insomnia and loneliness. Collective grief some experts are calling this processing. It makes sense, the way things used to be is gone, dead. As difficult as it is, they probably will not be going back to “normal” any time soon. Even when we do, I suspect it truly will continue to be a “new normal.” Whatever that means.
When they laid Jesus in the grave, he was gone, dead. But Christ has risen! There is no going back to before. Not for Jesus, not for his early followers and not for us. Death has already been defeated! That what is normal has already been renewed. As the body of Christ, we have always been a people of the in-between, even while we do not fully understand. We are a people who know the reality that the death-winning, pre-resurrection life is gone. We are a people hopefully waiting for the completeness of God’s good work on earth as it is in heaven.
We know God is not dead- but alive! That leaves us only one thing to do, as the Psalmist says “I will remember you… I meditate on you in the night…for you have been my help.” All the things that used to captivate our attention, that used to order our lives, those things have been called into question as we navigate the unknown. This might be an opportunity for each of us and for all of us, to turn our eyes to Jesus. To be filled with the life of the Holy Spirit and to know that we the mighty right hand of God is our help. In this time of unknown let us remember who the living God is, so we might remember that we are a people of already and not-yet. A people longing for the Lord in meditation and praise even while we rest in the shadow of God’s wings. Live it out as you check on your neighbors, as you keep up with the news, as you find time to rest. Know that God is the ground beneath you, holding you and looking on you. May God bless and keep you.
Leave a Reply