Lord, you were favourable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you pardoned all their sin.
Selah
You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.
Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation towards us.
Will you be angry with us for ever?
Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
so that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.*
Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
The Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him,
and will make a path for his steps.
Peterson's reworking from the Message is instructive as he renders this prayer/poem like this:
God, you smiled on your good earth! You brought good times back to Jacob!
You lifted the cloud of guilt from your people,
you put their sins far out of sight.
You took back your sin-provoked threats,
you cooled your hot, righteous anger.
Help us again, God of our help;
don't hold a grudge against us forever.
You aren't going to keep this up, are you?
scowling and angry, year after year?
Why not help us make a fresh start—a resurrection life?
Then your people will laugh and sing!
Show us how much you love us, God!
Give us the salvation we need!
I can't wait to hear what he'll say.
God's about to pronounce his people well,
The holy people he loves so much,
so they'll never again live like fools.
See how close his salvation is to those who fear him?
Our country is home base for Glory!
Love and Truth meet in the street,
Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss!
Truth sprouts green from the ground,
Right Living pours down from the skies!
Oh yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty;
our land responds with Bounty and Blessing.
Right Living strides out before him,
and clears a path for his passage.
Two observations - among many - grab my attention today (with more to follow, I'm sure.)
+ First, commentators have noted three distinct sections of this poem of "lament and prophetic liturgy." There is a sense of God's historic mercy in part one (vss. 1-3), there is a cry for healing and salvation in part two (vss. 4-7) and there is a celebration of mercy, hope, compassion, shalom and justice in part three (vss. 8-13) For Christians, the season of Advent is greater than our individual lives, yes? Our journey by faith is linked both to our faith community - the living body - as well as the wider community. That means there is nothing sentimental about this time of year; we may privatize it all we like - fill it full of sparkling trinkets - but Advent is bigger than me - or you - it is about ALL of us together.
+ Second, I am struck and attracted to the incarnational albeit paradoxical promises of part three where "love and truth meet in the street and truth and right living sprout from the ground and pour down from the skies." In my reading, the Psalmist says that hesed - faithful compassion - or merciful action born of a covenental relationship to freedom and integrity - will be in communion with tsedeq - justice and equality - that is a set of social relationships grounded in the common good - shall saturate creation. TWhat's more, they will rain down from above and spring up from below.
So this is NOT an abstract concept about justice and peace, but rather a clear invitation to put into practice the prophetic challenge Christians listen for in Advent: "comfort, comfort o my people" saith the Lord. (Isaiah 40) Micah was equally unambiguous: What does the Lord require of you but to do mishpat and share hesed with one another as you walk (journey/travel/live) in humble community. All active, yes? Not passive or idealistic and disembodied ideas, but a way of living that strengthens the common good born in covenant.
Earlier this morning I read Fr. Richard Rohr's unique take one aspect of building the common good:
When we set out to seek our private happiness, we often create an idol that is sure to topple. Any attempts to protect any full and private happiness in the midst of so much public suffering have to be based on illusion about the nature of the world in which we live. We can only do that if we block ourselves from a certain degree of reality and refuse solidarity with “the other side” of everything, even the other side of ourselves.
There is so much more to share... but there are people to visit, stories to hear and music to be played. Until the next time.
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