Welcome to Psalm-light
“How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? cried out the Psalmist (137: 4).
The Hebrew people were in captivity in Babylon.
We are in exile from our familiar pre-pandemic lives.
For ‘the next while’ we will offer a reflection on the Psalm, in the Sunday readings.
The Psalmist is an artist of the Word; painting with every color in his paint box: bright ones for joyful praise and thanksgiving to God; warm ones for love and compassion; dark ones for suffering, anxiety, depression, loss, grief and mourning; fiery tones for anger and rage; muddy ones for confusion. All of life is portrayed on the Psalmist’s canvas, and so is the presence and grace of God.
Each week we will offer a short meditation; sometimes historical, or sometimes akin to a “mini-Bible study,” or at other times personal storytelling, but always a response to the Psalm. We will also include suggested prayer starters, or spiritual practices, or reflective questions, to aid the reader in their own response.
Psalm-light for the First Sunday in Lent, 2021
Psalm 25: 1-10
“Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
in you have I trusted all the day long.” (Psalm 25: 4)
The first time I drove on a newly opened stretch of highway, our old GPS depicted our vehicle as floating on a featureless sea of green; apparently, in the mind of the GPS, we had gone “off road”; we were off the map! The computer voice was insistent that we should turn left, right, or around; so that we could get back to something familiar. Positive personal and communal change can be like turning off a rutted road onto fresh ground. To paraphrase the Spanish poet Antonio Machado, “We make the road by walking.”
Dissatisfaction with aspects of our lives, or with “the way things are,” can be our motivator for change; but for people of faith, God’s love is the fuel that sustains our journey, and will bring us home. It is God’s love that allows us to look at ourselves and our world through His eyes of compassion, and, with His help, make more life-giving choices, as we, like Jesus in the wilderness, wrestle with our own temptations.
Walking in the light:
Take some quite time alone, and center yourself in the presence of our loving God. Under the gentle leading of the Spirit, reflect on your life; your joys and struggles. Are there areas of temptation where you need help from God and others? Prayerfully read Psalm 25: 1-10, and ask God to lead and guide you forward.
Submitted by Archdeacon Peter Crosby