Faithful Love, Saving Justice
Pslam 36:5-10
This psalm lifts up two themes: faithful love and saving justice. ("Steadfast love" and "righteousness" in the NRSV, but I like the NJB words.) They both reach far beyond what we can fathom, past where we can see, and beyond even our imagination. Still, no matter how far we've come, no matter how much we have imagined and learned, the love and saving justice of God is there and calls us further on.
And yet, even while pulling, dragging, pushing, urging us on, on, on... faithful love meets human and animal where we are, and we can take refuge and drink from delicious streams. The dual nature of God: meeting us where we are now, and always always calling us further on our journey; comforting us where we are now and making us uncomfortable with where we are now (and drawing us into further discomfort, but comforting us there, too).
And in a verse made for process theologians: "in you is the source of life." That which animates us and opens up to creative transformation; that which expands life in us, against those forces that would diminish us and our life. We confess confidence in this we-know-not-what that brings us about as we could not have been brought about by ourselves.
And in this season of Epiphany, the bringing of the Light, the psalmist expresses the truth: by Your light we see the light. It is the source of illumination, but also the means by which we learn to see the illuminating. Maintain this faithfulness, this stick-to-it-tiveness on Your part, to those who would seek this source. And extend Your saving justice (not vengeance, not retribution; but mercy and recognition and redemption) to everyone, particularly those with an honest heart (who recognize their own shortcomings, myopias, and littleness). A-men.
This psalm lifts up two themes: faithful love and saving justice. ("Steadfast love" and "righteousness" in the NRSV, but I like the NJB words.) They both reach far beyond what we can fathom, past where we can see, and beyond even our imagination. Still, no matter how far we've come, no matter how much we have imagined and learned, the love and saving justice of God is there and calls us further on.
And yet, even while pulling, dragging, pushing, urging us on, on, on... faithful love meets human and animal where we are, and we can take refuge and drink from delicious streams. The dual nature of God: meeting us where we are now, and always always calling us further on our journey; comforting us where we are now and making us uncomfortable with where we are now (and drawing us into further discomfort, but comforting us there, too).
And in a verse made for process theologians: "in you is the source of life." That which animates us and opens up to creative transformation; that which expands life in us, against those forces that would diminish us and our life. We confess confidence in this we-know-not-what that brings us about as we could not have been brought about by ourselves.
And in this season of Epiphany, the bringing of the Light, the psalmist expresses the truth: by Your light we see the light. It is the source of illumination, but also the means by which we learn to see the illuminating. Maintain this faithfulness, this stick-to-it-tiveness on Your part, to those who would seek this source. And extend Your saving justice (not vengeance, not retribution; but mercy and recognition and redemption) to everyone, particularly those with an honest heart (who recognize their own shortcomings, myopias, and littleness). A-men.
Labels: Psalms
posted by Christian at 7:37 AM
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