Watch for it – February 2023

One of the many things I’ve grown to appreciate about the Psalms is the collection’s refusal to gloss over the reality that life sucks sometimes.

If you look at the book of Psalms as a compiled collection, a pattern can be observed. There is an upward trajectory to the compilation.

Psalms begins with a couple chapters of orientation. Psalm 1 reminds us that, in order to succeed at life, we have to fully embrace our autonomy. You have to make choices to set yourself up for a good life. Then Psalm 2 sets forth the worldview that there is a Supreme Being in control, even when it doesn’t seem that way.

From there, whoever assemled the writings (and we don’t know who that was) did not forget or hide from the fact. that a lot of time, life sucks. Yes, the psalms include all the good stuff: praise, thanksgiving, and celebration. In fact, the entire collection ends on an insane high note of Party-On platitudes. But in the messy middle, where we so often live, it doesn’t deny that bad things happen, that our emotions can get ugly, that people can be horrid, and that darkness can close in on us. For those in the messy middle of life the platitudes and positivity of many of the psalms can leave you nauseated and cynical. But I love that, even with that attitude, you are not alone. Even in that darkness, someone is there to hold your hand.

In the darkest moments of my life, the psalms, my only consistent practice for decades, gave me the words to pray when I had no words. These writings helped me find expression for ugly emotions I wanted to deny or gloss over. And most of all, they provided an ancient anchor for my soul to cling to when the storms of life threatened to wipe me out.

If you find yourself in darkness of soul today, sometimes the most we can hope for is someone to hold our hand in the dark.

Come along with me as I walk through some of the difficult spaces in Psalms.