“Blessed
be the Lord,
for he has
wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was
beset as a city under siege.”
~Psalm 31:21 (NRSV)
Desperate times call for desperate
measures, and this psalm speaks of such times; when times get tough best are we
when to cling fast to the Lord.
What’s added to the flavour of
this psalm is the mode of imprecation toward an enemy—haven’t we all been
there? That is to bring a curse on
someone. If we’re honest, we have; all
of us.
The psalmist (ascribed as David) seems
to vacillate between honouring God with their praise for the Lord’s faithfulness and cursing the enemy
who’s flatly derisive to God. They don’t
care a hang about the moral realm.
Without God that sort of person overwhelms our capacity for hope.
Seeking Refuge >> Obedience
>> Humility
We all have times when there’s
only one good place to go—into the loving embrace of the Lord.
Whatever is chasing down our spirits is not the point. Where we go is.
This is a mature response to not
hedge the right way despite our want to either fight or take flight.
The psalmist teaches us a good
lesson here of both obedience and reliance.
These are disposed out of copious humility—ordered just in time. This quality of poise is known to a spirit
calmed only by its Maker.
Into God’s Hand to Commit Our Spirits
The psalmist is completing the
transaction of the redemption experience by affirming their allegiance to
“faithful God” (verse 5). This is a
beautiful harmony forged in despair.
Many of our biggest challenges
force our hand. We go one way or the
other—away from God or to God. The
former is characteristic of our humanity; to take up cudgels with the enemy
because we can have things just the way we like them (or so we foolishly think!). The latter is the step that only needs to be
taken once. There we remain convinced to
the value of going God’s way in temptation and struggle.
Marks of Lament
The attitude of lament is soaked
into the oak of the psalm.
In the psalms we know that God connects
with us; in this case by lament. A third
of the psalms are so despairingly human we can literally feel their emotion. Laments are the particular language of
David. But there too are the communal
laments; again, the human contrasts of life.
What makes this lament noteworthy,
however, is the fact that praise and commitment to God is never too far
away. In our despoiled messes, can we be
as gracious under tremulous threat?
Invocations to Follow the Lord
Verse 23 is an example where David
proclaims the power of God to turn things around. It uses commanding language to compel those
doubting the Lord’s faithfulness
to just love God—all else will settle itself.
“Be
strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you
who wait for the Lord.”
~Psalm 31:24 (NRSV)
We recall the psalmist has been
delivered. And we’re just as excited
about God’s delivering hand at the stead of our deliverance—myriad form that’s
taken.
This is most assuredly a psalm to
read and meditate over during low times of oppression, depression and
persecution. For any low place, take a
swim in this.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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