Tags
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.
Speaking of antonyms (as I was doing yesterday), I have no choice but to choose love as the theme for today. Psalm 119 announces it when it declares: Blessed are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!” (vs.1-2), waking up those who have slept through the first reading from the second letter of John. In a clarion call that John sees as only a reminder of what God’s law proclaims, he says: “I ask you, not as if I were writing a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning: let us love one another.” 
Once a month now at the Sophia Center we have a noon gathering to ponder the lectionary psalm of the day. A few months ago it happened that a section of the longest psalm in the Bible (PS 119) showed up on our meeting day. As I thought about how to present this snippet of a greater whole, I found my answer in a section of commentary that said, “Experiences are often repeated again and again. As we go over the same territory learning in new ways, truth becomes grounded…” The six chosen verses for that day were in the same section but not tightly sequential. Our normal practice is to read what appears just once through, either by one person, antiphonally (alternately by two groups), or all together. I decided to experiment by having each participant read one verse that we then commented upon before going on to the next one. The result was quite profound. There were six of us present that day. Six different voices describing the same sentiment deepened the meaning and solidified it in our hearts. And then the next verse built upon that deepening.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know what to say in this complex and over-stimulating world in which we now live. This morning as I was considering the lectionary readings one by one I kept getting interrupted with news flashes. It went something like this:
Psalm 119, the longest in the book of 150 psalms, has 176 verses and can be the study of a lifetime. In a commentary this morning I read that the subject of these prayers is the hard learning one gains in light of a multitude of hardships and circumstances encountered on the spiritual path…Experiences are often repeated again and again. As we go over the same territory learning it in new ways, truth becomes grounded. Insights are gained from each spiral of ascending experience.
It is interesting to me that today’s psalm response from the lectionary is part of 119 – the longest psalm of all in the Bible. Fitting, I thought, after a week away that held so many diverse moments, including childhood memories as well as experiences of new places and events. Commentary says that “each segment of Psalm 119 could be read as a separate voice from individuals praying out of their various perspectives” or “one individual experiencing all the various perspectives that one knows along the path of life.” I’m not sure I have integrated all the impressions, information and feelings of the week as it was so full and far-reaching. One thing I do know is that it provided an opportunity (as most events do if we are awake) for self-reflection and gratitude. Thus, I pray this morning with the psalmist as I return to my blessed “normal” life.
I doubt I will ever read Psalm 119 from beginning to end in one sitting. It’s the longest one, 176 verses in all. Each section begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in succession, rather like our singsong game of “A, B, C, D…” where we learned to expand and fill in with words like “A my name is Alice, my husband’s name is Al, we come from Alaska and we sell Artichokes.” (Next person) “B my name is Bertha…” (Goodness! It’s been a long time since I thought of that! What a wonder that my mental rolodex flipped it out without hesitation!)