Praise for Creation

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, blessings, creation, Genesis, joy, praise God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s lectionary psalm (104) walks in tandem with the Genesis creation reading that precedes it. Having, however, a different purpose, it offers us a reason to pause and reflect—as if looking back on how we’ve appreciated what God has made. Immediately, as the psalmist opens his mouth, praise and purpose come forth: Rise up. my soul, and speak this blessing to your God...What follows is a reminder of the greatness of God’s generosity and how we have or have not appreciated the gift.

Today would be a good day to look up the totality of this song of praise or simply to see and consider how we have appreciated its content in how we have used and/or abused the creation. Look around. (I say this as the sun peeks out from behind the hills to wash us and to melt the snow.) Think more about the creation and how we have helped it manifest (like plantings and the vegetables that are in season) rather than how we have used—and sometimes abused—these natural resources. Make whatever offering of prayer comes to you while thinking on these things and conclude with the final verses of the psalm that speak our praise:

So while I live and have my breath, all this shall be my song. And may the poetry of heart and word I speak rise up as joy to bless the Lord…for we would ever bless you, God, our hearts remembering all you are to us, both now and ever more…Amen and Hallelujah. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 262-3)

God’s Song: Us!

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, God, Lynn Bauman, Psalm 147, raise up, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The Psalm for today’s liturgy is personalized by Lynn Bauman in a lovely way. Just reflecting on the first six verses, translated in a much more personal and lyrical manner than traditional English, gives us pause. See if you don’t agree. (Read aloud and stop to reflect on what is said, bringing our life situation now into the meaning, if you will.)

Hallelujah! My whole being longs to be a song in which you, my God, are always the refrain. So let this canticle of praise which is my life bring honor to your name. The music for this song began in ages past when you, O God, drew back the exiles from afar, when you rebuilt your ancient city called Jerusalem. And now it sings the healing of our shattered hearts, the binding up of all the wounds our world has caused. The chorus of stars, each named by you, sings out and adds its voice. It sings the majesty of God and wisdom’s boundless name. For God steps down and raises up in tenderness all those who live in grief; and just as surely God subverts all wickedness and casts the wicked in defeat upon the ground. (PS 147: 1-6, Ancient Songs Sung Anew)

(Can’t you just see God stepping down somewhere in the sky, picking you up out of whatever sadness clings to you and calling you – softly smiling – by your name…?)

Invitation

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, invitation, psalm 118, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’m feeling a call to fewer words this morning. Psalm 118 is replete with expressions and calls to those of us who wish to “enter the gates of justice,” those who “come in the name of the Lord.” Of the many opportunities offering invitation, I am drawn by verses 19 & 20 that call out to me saying: On this path the gates of holiness are opened wide. I enter it and consecrate myself in gratitude. God’s gracious invitation is a door ajar and anyone who walks in right relationship may enter in. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew; the Psalms as Poetry, p.299)

It may only take a single step…Are you willing to take the risk of walking in?

Metanoia

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, I call your name, John Foley, Lynn Bauman, metanoia, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Turn To Me, turn toward God

In Lynn Bauman’s book on the psalms, Ancient Songs Sung Anew, the commentary speaks of the concept of metanoia, one of my favorite terms for reconciliation or turning around. In a more exact rendering, it is Greek for “after or beyond the mind or thought.” It suggests a change of mind or heart, a spiritual conversion or even a re-formation. There is (of course!) a song by the Saint Louis Jesuits that speaks well of that process, with God saying: ‘Turn to me, O, turn and be saved,” says the Lord, “For I am God. There is no other, none beside me. I call your name.” It’s that last part that always makes me stand to sing it and move my body slowly to the music in a circle while almost stationary (just tiny movements of my feet) that takes me in the opposite direction to where I was facing.

Hearing God’s call is always a motivator but we need to be still and attentive to hear the voice. It helps to use our bodies to listen. Try it. (Song on YouTube “Turn To Me,” by John Foley) Be sure to listen to the verses…Try it. You may like it.

Starting Over

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, balance, God is at the center, psalm 33, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The commentary in my “go-to” book about the psalms held a wake-up premise and question this morning at the beginning of the reflection page for today’s text. I think it will be enough to help me step out of the monotony that has crept in to slow me down and get me growing again. Here’s the text to ponder.

This Psalm (33) is an invitation to examine our lives in relationship both to our inner world and the world around us. In both cases God is at the center and the question to ask ourselves is what is the balance of relationships we experience there at each level?

If you need a little help with the question, here’s an additional prompt:

Notice that this psalm can be used in two directions. It can be used either to bring harmony and balance, or to force our personal agendas…Let your imagination range over your own activities to see where the balance of power lies in your life. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p.80)

Torah of the Heart

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, conversation with God, covenant, joy, love, psalm 119, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, worship

Yesterday our Sophia Center gathering for “Lunch With the Psalms” was so deep and meaningful I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to share in the reflections on Psalm 119: 41-48. I invite you to find a friend and have that conversation. If you prefer, call on our Divine Friend and have the conversation with God.

For the sake of the covenant we keep between us, Lord, let your love descend and hold me fast. And let your word be that which speaks to all who taunt and follow after me. Allow my mouth to utter words of truth, this Torah of the heart, which I shall trust and keep forever. And then in freedom I will walk upon your path and know these precepts are yours alone. I’ll speak them as an overwhelming power to all the rulers of the earth and unashamed. I’ll bind them to my heart with deepest joy. For I love and worship all you love, my Lord; I meditate upon this inner bread. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 303)

I strongly suggest reading the text aloud as the words shimmer with a beauty that is deeper than words and approached only by heart-language heard in our own voice.

Tour de Force

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, deep instruction, living grace, psalm 119, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Reading Psalm 119 seems sometimes like a circumnavigation of the world. This – the longest psalm – is a masterpiece consisting of 176 verses divided into 22 stanzas, one stanza for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Within each stanza, each of the 8 verses begins (in Hebrew) with that letter! The text of this psalm exhibits the love for God’s word and for the divine law.

Sometimes one or two verses are enough for a day of pondering, like today where the translation from Ancient Songs Sung Anew proclaims: Save me from the choice of self-deception. Let all your words become for me a living grace, that I might learn to hear your inner word, your deep instruction. (vs. 29, 72)

So many meaningful messages in those two short verses: self-deception, living grace, inner word, deep instruction. Those are mine…What have you heard today?

Only In God

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, await, hope, prayer, refuge, saving rock, silence, soul, stronghold, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I was led this morning to Psalm 62 by an e-mail from a friend. It speaks to the state of mind where I choose to place my hope these days.

Alone my soul awaits you in the silence, Lord; by you and only you am I restored. You are for me my solid ground, foundation firm on which I stand…for you are my whole hope and prayer. You only are my saving rock, a stronghold safe, unshaken, sure, my safety, honor and my refuge firm...(Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p.154)

For additional reflection, if you prefer music, visit John Foley of the Saint Louis Jesuits at YouTube for the song Only In God.

A Tender Testament

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, grace, lift up, Lynn Bauman, psalm 121, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Your hand shall guide me

The psalm from today’s lectionary in most Christian denominations is a familiar and consoling one. At least the first two lines are generally recognized. (“I lift up my eyes from the mountains from whence comes my help. My help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” PS 121) The psalmist seems to begin in these verses to be stating his confidence in God and then changes his address to his listeners, giving reasons for all of us to have trust in God.

Lynn Bauman has chosen to frame the psalm as a direct address to God, a kind of testament to relationship, one might say, which I found quite beautiful this morning. I write it here as a streaming totality, a love letter maybe, that flows from the pen of a grateful servant. See what you think.

“The summits of the mountains draw my eyes and lift them upward and beyond to you, the secret source of all my being. For in the height and depths of you, in you alone, I find the grace and help I need to walk upon this path called earth and never stumble nor go astray. For you as guard and guide keep watch; you will not sleep by day or night as we do. I walk into your wakefulness; your guarding eye, your guiding hand protects and shades my way. The sun by day, the moon by night provide no better light than yours, no better shade. And in the shadows of the mountains deep you preserve me from its evils. And in this traffic of the heart you shield my life and keep my soul in all its many wanderings, until at last I come to stand, my weary feet now firm upon the borders of your land, eternity.” (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p.315)

Bowing to Beauty

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, awe, child, humility, Jesus, Lynn Bauman, psalm 2, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I found a surprise today from the Acts of the Apostles. Paul is in Antioch, preaching in the synagogue, telling the story of Jesus. Toward the end of the text, speaking of the Resurrection he says, “…what God promised our fathers …as is written in the second psalm…”

Although there are many references to the Hebrew Scriptures in the New Testament, I don’t recall ever reading any specific reference to chapter or verse, like “the second Psalm.” I wondered at that so I went, of course, to Psalm 2 and found exactly what Paul was referencing in speaking of Jesus, a very familiar verse. (“You are my son; this day I have begotten you.” )

Looking for more as an expansion of the message of Psalm 2, I found from Lynn Bauman a lovely, inclusive translation*. “God says, ‘You are a child of mine, this day I birth you.'” A bit later in the psalm we see the responsibility accompanying God’s favor to the people, as the psalmist proclaims: Learn service to the God of earth and heaven. In humility and awe draw close, come near.

I look up from my computer and see the sun dappling my prayer plant as it bows in beauty before me. The tiniest of breezes ruffles the leaves. The birds are singing and the sun continues to warm the day. How can I not “draw close in awe and humility” to God in the presence of these beautiful signs and the expectation of what God holds for us this day.

*Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p. 3)