If you’ve been following along, (which I doubt), you are no doubt wondering if I went to the affirming church last Sunday, and if so, how it went… but to be honest, I don’t feel like talking about that right now. I’ll talk about that later, maybe… for now I’ll just say it was rather uneventful, and move on to what’s really on my mind.
The Psalms really comfort me. I’m sure I’m not the only one. David’s honesty is just so human. I’m working through a bit of rage right now. Something profoundly horrible happened to someone I love and, well… I’m angry. I’m having trouble sleeping, and when I do, I dream of decapitations and eviscerations. I’ve come up with some very creative ways to kill a man. I know that as a Christian love and forgiveness are key… but so is honesty. And, as I said, I’m comforted by the Psalms, which were written by David – a man “after God’s own heart”.
Psalm 58:6-11Break the teeth in their mouths, O God;
tear out, O LORD, the fangs of the lions!
Let them vanish like water that flows away;
when they draw the bow, let their arrows be blunted.
Like a slug melting away as it moves along,
like a stillborn child, may they not see the sun.
Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns—
whether they be green or dry—the wicked will be swept away.
The righteous will be glad when they are avenged,
when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
Then men will say,
"Surely the righteous still are rewarded;
surely there is a God who judges the earth."
Thursday, June 26, 2008
121. Psalms
Posted by JJ at 9:18 PM
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2 Comments:
I love the psalms for the very reasons you elucidate here. We often think of pastoral poetry like Psalm 23 when we think of the psalms, or meditative stuff as well, but the truth is that it runs the gamut of human experience and emotion.
It's a reminder that God created the whole range of human feeling, and that it's authenticate and legitimate to experience rage, anger, grief, and all the other emotions that we often frown upon in polite society. It's not a good thing to want to dash little ones against the rocks, but the depth of emotion, expressed to God in prayer, can be a cleansing and cathartic thing when you're coping with tremendous loss of your own.
Haha, it's like a real vocabulary word now!
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