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Assembly 2012 Psalm Reflections for a Written by members of the Eastern Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

easternsynod.org€¦  · Web viewAssembly 2012. Psalm Reflections for a. Written by members of the Eastern Synod. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Luther wrote of the Psalms

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Assembly 2012

Psalm Reflections for a

Written by members of the Eastern SynodEvangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

Luther wrote of the Psalms that they are not only addressed to God, but are also the voice of the gospel, God’s good word addressed to God’s faithful people. The Psalms will help us understand anew the dialogical relationship God offers in the covenant – a relationship where we open our hearts to listen deeply, and where we express boldly our laments and petitions along with our gratitude and praise, for the sake of the world.

Debbie Lou Ludolph

The following Psalm reflections have been contributed by clergy and laity of the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The purpose of this collection is two-fold. First, we want to offer Synod Assembly delegates a guide for their prayer and meditation of the Psalms in Keffer Chapel during Assembly, and following Assembly, to offer this guide to the whole synod to reflect in the quiet of summer days. Secondly, we hope to provide a broad representation of spirituality within the synod by hearing how the Psalms speak to each of us differently in our varied contexts and within the framework of the assembly theme: “Covenant People in Mission for Others”. It has been my joy and privilege to compile this project. I am so very grateful to all who have contributed their creative gifts. May all readers of this little volume be deeply blessed by the bold and touching honesty expressed here for the sake of the world.

Jennifer Wirt

Trial

Runner’s PsalmRev. Kimberlynn McNabb

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.It’s been weeks since I have heard you.I tie up my shoes to run away,Sneakers running from chaos.

You have remained silent:Quiet in the face of death, upon deathFuneral to funeralYou have stepped aside,In crisis been invisible.

And the sneakers go, 5kAngrily carrying me away:Pray, pray, pray.

Silent you have been at home -Teenagers rail as boyfriends change and life decisions overwhelm,The brunt of tears and anger fall to me,

parent.And still there are no words, no comfort.Where is the One who makes us lie down in green pastures, leads us beside still waters?And the sneakers go, 10kThumping out the rhythm: pray, pray, pray.Hear the prayers of the people, O GodIncline your ear to me, to us:

For those suffering, for those places, off prejudice and injusticeHunger and painDarkness and malaise of the heart...Lord in your mercy...

And the sneakers go, 15kPray, pray, pray.In loving kindness, have mercy on me, O GodFor I am stubborn, busy, driven...Create in me a clean heart,renew a right spirit within meAnd the sneakers go, 20kPray, pray, pray.

And there you are in kilometer 21Almost home, you find me in exhaustion;Empty, prayed out.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.You sing for me a new song, envision a new raceAnd so I return home renewed,Running in steadfast love, singing God’s faithfulness

forever.

A Reflection on Psalm 119Sherry Coman

I always used to think of Psalm 119 as ‘that really long one’ that seemed to be all about obeying statutes and ordnances. Then one summer month I was on retreat at an American abbey where the psalms are canted five times a day. The various sections of Psalm 119 were on the rota and there was no avoiding it. As I dutifully (if unhappily) recited the verses with the monks, I heard them anew. I was helped by beautiful phrases: “Remember your word to your servant, in which you made mehope.” (119:49) “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (119:105) The psalmist seemed to be saying that desire for God and obedience to God’s will are intertwined, a path continuously evolving. ‘Teach me your statutes’ he says, not just because persecution and enemies are encircling him, but because the earth is ‘full of God’s steadfast love’. In the cultures of antiquity obedience to law was not just a covenantal value, a ritualistic practice, but a way to find love for God. Love of God’s law is embedded in Jesus’ teachings in the Gospel. When I studied Hebrew, I discovered that the entire psalm was an acrostic: the letter of the alphabet that marked off each section was also the first letter of the word that started the section. In this way, the letters of the words, and the spirit of the law, were gracefully combined. “Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me understanding according to your word.” (119:169)

Hope and Trust

A Reflection on Psalm 30Steve Hoffard

Then you changed my despair into a dance—you stripped me of my death shroud

and clothed me with joy.That’s why me heart sings to you,

that’s why I can’t keep silent—YHWH, you are my God,

And I will thank you forever!Psalm 30:11-12

Psalm 30 was written by someone who has been to hell and back. It is a song of praiseto God to be sung by someone who has experienced the depths of life’s valley and been brought back out of it. As I reflect on it I realize my life’s ups and downs have been relatively smooth. I have not been to the pit of Sheol. I guess that is reason enough to sing a song of praise—a life that has had more rejoicing than sorrow. However, then I wonder—what about those who are experiencing a personal hell right now. How would they hear these words of the psalmist? It is my prayer that in these words those in the pit would see the movement. God’s grace does not leave us in the pit, our lives are not static. In this movement we find the core of the gospel—the old becomes new—our despair is changed into a dance. A dance of life—death is no more. May all God’s children be able to experience the gift of resurrection. May they be moved fromweeping to joy, from darkness to light.

A Reflection on Psalm 91David Malina

“He will spread his wings over you and keep you secure. His faithfulness islike a shield or a city wall.”

Psalm 91:4

Driving along Charles Street on a May morning in downtown Kitchener, suddenly my eyes spot something unusual on the pavement ahead of me. Something moving, living, and strangely out-of-place against the backdrop of concrete cityscape.

Approaching and slowing, I see Mother Duck, and a bunch of tiny ducklings tightly following Mom as they purposely cross the street. I slow to a stop. Another car from the other direction stops. And together we watch the goslings obediently follow their protecting Mom waddle across the street. We pause in the midst of feverish rushing, to savour a quiet moment, to behold a picture of God’s faithfulness.

What better place is there, than under God’s protective wings, leaning into God’s loving embrace, basking in the warm light of God in whom we live and move and have our being?

This is what gives us courage to cross whatever “street” before us, to be the neighbour we’re called to be, to reach out and do what needs doing so that God’s light can shine. Like the tiny ducklings unsure about the noisy rush of metal, engine and rubber on hard concrete, we who are unsure, scared, hesitant, can nevertheless find the courage to follow where Mom leads, not sure exactly where we’re going, but only that our God’s wings encompass us, and push us forward.

A Reflection on Psalm 131Ann Krueger

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.Psalm 131:1-2

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like a weanedchild that is with me.

I have always loved the images in this psalm. But now I am a grandmother, and so the images – well,they are no longer images but lived experiences.

I hope that you too can remember the feel and touch of a sweet faced little child – what it feels likewhen chubby little arms wrap themselves around you, and how you both melt into blissful contentment. It is enough just to touch and love.

In moments like that, my heart is bursting with gratitude and joy. To be so loved!

There are times when I pray that I imagine myself leaning against Jesus, sitting on the floor, leaningagainst his knee. And in my mind, I just rest there, feeling peaceful, connected, loved.

Somehow, I’ve never put those two experiences together, until just now. But I wonder, could it bepossible – in those moments, could God also feel joy?

Lament

A Reflection on Psalm 130Sherry Coman

In the daily devotional I use, the central lines of Psalm 130 are among the first words I speak aloud in a day: ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning”. In these phrases, I hear the patience and attendance of all who spend time in the dark nights of life’s path, either ‘watching for the morning’ in their own crises orin the crisis times of others. It calls to mind the nightly sojourns of Jesus to the mountain during his months of teaching, and in the final hours of Gethsemane, and it also allows me to imagine the waiting and watchful hours of Mary and the other women disciples, for a dawn that might allow them to return to their beloved Lord at the tomb and anoint him. In the Mishnah, there are guidelines for when to do the morning and evening prayers, and the quality of light in the sky is described. Therising from sleep, the return of the new day, the greeting of dawn with prayer was a way to give thanks for the renewed presence of creation, and for the God who is always present, even in the long night. As the watchman breathes a sigh of relief with the first light of dawn, so we are grateful for signs we find at any time of day, that God never left us, and was there all along.

A Reflection on Psalm 130 Allen G. Jorgenson

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.”Out of the depths I cry to you, you who draw me

ever deeper into the mystery of life,You who shatter my sense of certainty in allowing

me to sink to that place where my carefully crafted answers to the whys of

life are seen to be folly.You, Holy One of Israel, draw me down, down to the depths of a darkness that I now own, a darkness that describes on the one hand, my utter unknowing, and on the other, my unwillingness to know how I hurt myself, others, the world, and you with my refusal to see that your love

will not let me go.But yet, because this love will not let me go, you flow

words through my mouth: faltering phrases that amaze me with raw

honesty – the depth being that place where birthing cries rise to the divine ears that both hear and create what they hear.Yes, even my cries are born in you. What am I to do

with this love? I will hope. I will hope for a healing of the cosmos. I will hope for peace among peoples.I will wait in silence knowing that stillness is the soil that sustains the sprig of speech that hails the dawning of that day when peace and justice kiss, when steadfast love and faithfulness meet. I will cry, I will hope, and I will wait because you create – in even me – faith, hope, and love.

A Lament adapted from Psalm 115Matthew Anderson

OK.Not for us, nor for our sake -Do you hear O God?No.But to your OWN name give some meaning.For the sake of your loyal love and faithfulness!If you won't do anything for usBe faithful to yourself ,to the covenant which YOU initiated,God of our fathers and mothers.Now,now. Now.Now is the time.

Why does the world say"Where is their God?"Our God is here -God can do anything, anytime.Their dollar-bill, never-have-their-fill, American idolsare just silver and gold -reputations made with human handsgadgets from China and Japan,These things have mouths, but they can't speak,eyes, but they can't see,ears, but they can't hear.They have no senses,no hands, to really feelno feet, no walking, no traction.No souls, no re-creative action.Let the people who live by these idolsand all who trust in them,become just like them - shiny,trinkets,and soulless.

But you, o child of God, trust in the LORD!God is our help and the warm arms around us.May the LORD add to our numbers -to our children and grandchildren.Bless us LORD, now and forever.Remember us. Do not abandon.The dead don't praise the LORDnor those who go down to silence,But we?We will bless the LORD.We will cling to the covenant -Even when they scoff.

AMEN

Companionship

A Reflection on Psalm 46Carolyn Wilker

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”Psalm 46:1

Help in Trouble

One year, on a trip to Colorado to visit friends, we had occasion to visit the Air Force Academy and its chapel just outside the community of Colorado Springs. We watched the recruits marching and heard the stories of disenchanted trainees who do not survive the rigours of their training. Then in the chapel, I read these words, “God is our refuge and strength.” Those were words I knew and struggled with during challenges of upcoming years.

The apostle Paul tells us to give thanks in all conditions, yet when I read of a mother or a child torn from family because someone drunk decided to drive that morning, where’s the joyfulness in that? For the woman’s friends, like me, or her children who now have no parent? For the family who has lost a child because of someone else’s dangerous choice?

Maybe it’s that we allow someone else to minister to us. Or it can be a time we walk with others in their dark valleys, pray with them, and listen to their words, that we are the hands and feet of God. Maybe then someone can rejoice.

Heavenly Father, many times we feel that we cannot rejoice. Help us to remember that you carry us when we are going through troubling times. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Reflection on Psalm 49 Rick Pryce

When I was young, my family would sometimes play the “What would you do if you won the lottery?” game. Strictly hypothetically, of course!

Our first answers were usually the “fun stuff” – clothes for my sisters, trips for me, and the mortgage paid off for my (ever practical) parents.

As the conversation progressed, however, we generally agreed that, once we had taken care of these “necessities,” we would do something noble like supporting the food bank, or helping out a family down the street.

I have a feeling that the author of Psalm 49 wouldn’t want to play this game with us!

This Psalm declares that our fascination with money (even if it’s hypothetical), including our attempt at generosity, is nothing more than a vain attempt to make our mark in life. It then goes on to say that ‘making our mark’ almost always boils down to a pointless effort to avoid death.

Wow! Pretty harsh words!

But verse 15 changes things: “God will ransom my soul from the power of [the grave], for [God] will receive me.”

The Psalmist insists that nothing, not even death, will cancel the relationship God has with us.

Therefore, it’s not about our wealth or lack of it. It’s not about ‘making our mark’ in life. Ultimately, it’s not even about death.

It’s about God, who has made God’s mark in us.

It’s about God, who will never to let go of us.It’s about God, who blesses us with a Promise.Even if we never win the lottery!

A Reflection on Psalm 71Deborah Ann (Duffy) Taylor

“So even to old age and gray hairs,O God, do not forsake me,until I proclaim your might

to all the generations to come.”Psalm 71: 18

To talk with my father is to fight a war with words as my weapons. I hurl them against the dementia besieging his memory and clever wit. I speak to prolong the connection; to introduce a topic that might reach across the miles and keep him with me for as long as his fading memory allows. The words that escaped my mouth this evening surprised us both:

“Dad, didn’t you tell me once that you remember Grandpa working his farm with mules?”

“I haven’t thought about those mules in years,” he answered, laughing. “Their names were Jack and Fanny and they would do anything your grandpa asked them to do.”

For the next twenty minutes, my father talked with me about farming with mules, of a grandfather whose animals obeyed him because he treated them well, about plowing fields with Jack and Fanny; working animals turned family pets.

My father was my dad, again.

I forgot to grieve his fleeting days and fading mind, and remembered instead what it was like to be a little girl by her father’s side while he told me of the

way it used to be, when he was the age that I was then.

We said goodbye.

“I love you, Dad. God bless you.”

“He always has,” my father said.

“So even to old age and gray hairs,O God, do not forsake me,until I proclaim your might

to all the generations to come.”

Resurrection

A Psalm Reflection(Inspired by Kermit the Frog and jazz musician Dave McMurdo!)Fred Ludolph

Why, O Lord, Are there so many songs about rainbows?And,WHY AREN’T there songs about eight legged creatures?

Spiders tiny and red, spiders large black and hairySpiders in worm holes and spiders in treesBeetles in dung balls and beetles in streamsMites, ticks and fleas on elephants , in the trachea’s of bees,In arm pits, eye brows and hair --- ON ME

And so too the waters swarm with creatures and legs innumerablePrawn, shrimp, crab, lobster, crayfish and moreSome live by the ocean’s deep sulphur vents, some on the beachSome in the bays, bayous and swamps, some in the muck and the mireSome in the waves and some in clear streams and lakes.

In the midst of them swims that Leviathan, lumbering yet graceful,which you made for the sport it.Vacuuming them up by the billionsFuel for marathon swims, ocean choruses, and magnificent leaps.

As long as your arm or too tiny to see, we eat them too.Boiled , baked, breaded and fried – and sometimes by accident.Some groom us, or guzzle our bloodAnd should we die in their back yard, would make of us a feastFit for the arachnid crustacean kingdoms.

Why, O Lord, are there so many eight appendaged, populations,So many fossilized apparitions, prototypes from eons past?Are the living design boards for those yet to come?Is there need for all of this, is such profligate variety necessary?

Are you, O Lord, the jazz composer of creation,Searching for every variation, on every possibility?

Moses knew the desert and saw the glory of your back.We explore the dark of space and deeps,The light of day on every dry or watery scape.In the rainbow, do we catch our glimpse of your glory,As you stand on your head, taking delight in all your making?Is that why so many songs, so many legs?

A Reflection: God’s CovenantAnna Breen

The beautiful blue sky, on this clear and sunny spring day, gives us a glimpse of the expanse of God’s handiwork and is a reminder to God’s people of His Covenant of Love.

The Holy Bible is filled with the words and laws of God and is a blessing to those who follow Him. Aguide and a mercy to mankind, filled with wisdom for those who care to learn.

Creation sings His praise. Birds of all descriptions sing joyful praises to the Lord. A red cardinal,

perched daintily on a branch, sings its little heart out as I pass by. I stop and listen, joy and awe fill my soul as my eyes and ears drink in the beauty of this little bird and its song to the Creator.

I am reminded, once again, of His covenant with mankind. It guides us in our daily lives, shows us how to love others and how to lend a helping hand to the needy as our Saviour did.A Reflection on Psalm 98:1Norma Yau

“Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm

have worked salvation for him.”

Singing, music, joy!! All these things make my world go round. And every day I sing, play or listen tomusic. The day is complete when music is a part of it.

The psalmist says we need to sing to the Lord a “new” song. He explains why but this verse makes me think of the hymns in our hymn books. We feel comfort with the familiar tunes, the well known words. We tend to avoid the hymns we don’t know.

The psalmist invites us to praise the Lord with songs from our hearts - songs that are new, fresh,wonderful. Yes, we can give to the Lord with the beloved hymns we learned as children or haveheard many times over. But we can also learn new tunes, new words, feel new feelings.

Our present secular culture is very capable of presenting and absorbing new and constantlychanging songs and music – almost at an alarming rate. Today’s artist often is tomorrow’s forgotten hit. But some remain loved for years.

God has done marvelous things for us all. Let us give to him our praises in the songs that we love and cherish. But let us also give praise to him with the new songs written by those who show their love for their Lord in new tunes and new words. May those

new songs become beloved to us as they surely are to our Lord.

A Reflection on Psalm 27Susan Climo

When I was a little girl I thought of church, God’s house, as home – a good and lovely place. Sowhen I first read Psalm 27 in my little silver Gideon’s, I remember feeling the writer spoke for me in wishing ‘to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life’. At that time our family home was just two doors up from St. Ansgar Lutheran Church in Montreal, and I felt as if I truly lived in both places. Psalm 27 touched my heart and reflected my simple but deep desire to connect with God.

Now, back in Grade 6, I wasn’t thinking about when ‘evildoers assail me’ or ‘false witnesses have risen against me’. But the beauty of the Psalms is how they have spoken to God’s covenant people in all times and places, and how they speak to each of us at every stage and in every circumstance of our lives.

Today, I serve with a community who recently lost their ‘house of the Lord’ when the church’s lease was terminated. As we grappled with that challenge, we had our moments of feeling assailed, moments of fear. Returning to Psalm 27 in those moments, I was drawn to the images of God as my light and my stronghold. I prayed along with the Psalmist ‘teach me your way, O Lord, and lead meon a level path’. When I was feeling the most anxious, I boldly declared ‘I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living’. And I sang ‘Wait for the Lord, be strong, take heart’, over and over again. When it was hardest to remember God’s loving promises, Psalm 27

remembered them for me. And now, as we are settling into our beautiful new home with our Anglican brothers and sisters, our heads are lifted up as we ‘shout with joy’ and ‘sing and make melody to God’!

A Reflection on Psalm 8Doug Allen

My daughter refers to our family’s rustic cabin on a Northern Ontario lake as “the Happy Place”—and I wonder at the intensity of her longing to be there.

Her reason becomes most evident on a clear mid-summer night. Absolute darkness of forest and lake is made most astounding by distance from artificial light. The immensity of the universe becomes overwhelming. Nowhere in village, town or city can such vastness be portrayed; civilization’s lights dilute the greatness of the solar systems even as folkways and mores modify the sense of oneness with nature in a remote setting. We are encouraged to conform rather than simply to accept.

Yet, when confronted by the magnitude of the starry heavens, one senses an epiphany. Pebble on a beach, grain of sand, drop of water—whatever the metaphor, the emotion of uncertainty or insignificance seems to humble most persons equally. The child responds to the mystery with wonder even as the adult considers his worth—indeed, the adult reverts to that same spontaneous wonder as the child, but then realizes

“Yet in these thoughts myself despising,

Haply I think on thee—and then my state

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate.”

Shakespeare’s words to some earthly “thee” are strangely appropriate when thoughts are of God. At one’s lowest ebb, thought of this creation causes feelings of worthlessness to be surpassed by elation. God has placed mankind in a position closest to His own. No explanation is

given; one can only wonder about our deserving such respect. Rationality which places us above other creatures can be used equally to compose a joy-giving e-mail or an insidious virus.An epiphany of gratitude suddenly abounds in our dark forest- our “Happy Place”: don’t question why mankind is blessed, simply glory in it! No wonder that the invocation which comes most readily to us in fear, joy or love is “O Lord”!A Reflection on Psalm 134Alannah d’Ailly

In the dark of night I stand watch -the stillness ringing, Holy.

My thoughts of the daya skittering mouse,the unfinished,the unsaid,the uncomfortable,the incomplete -

scratching unresolved,awake in the night, repeating.

How long the night is –exposing my thirst,revealing my fears,uncovering my longing.

A branch sways in the wind,tap tap tap.

A litany forthe forgotten,the uncertain.

A litanyrecited unbidden.

Love calls.

How dark the night is,when the moon departs the skyand I keep watch.

Love calls andI tune my soul to it;hold hope gently.

My breath rises,warm on the cool darkness –where a blessing grows.Bless the Lord O my soul.

Love calls andI tune my soul to it;hold it close,the stillness ringingwith the songof my heart.