Psalms for Turbulent Times: Psalm 31: We are always encompassed by love

Psalm 31[1]
¹ In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame;
    deliver me in your righteousness.
² Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
³ Since you are my rock and my fortress,
    for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
⁴ Keep me free from the trap that is set for me,
    for you are my refuge.
⁵ Into your hands I commit my spirit;
    deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.
⁶ I hate those who cling to worthless idols;
    as for me, I trust in the Lord.
⁷ I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction
    and knew the anguish of my soul.
⁸ You have not given me into the hands of the enemy
    but have set my feet in a spacious place.
⁹ Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;
    my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief.
¹⁰ My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
    and my bones grow weak.
¹¹ Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbours
and an object of dread to my closest friends—
    those who see me on the street flee from me.
¹² I am forgotten as though I were dead;

I have become like broken pottery.
¹³ For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!”
They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
¹⁴ But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
¹⁵ My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
    from those who pursue me.
¹⁶ Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
¹⁷ Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I have cried out to you;
but let the wicked be put to shame and be silent in the realm of the dead.
¹⁸ Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt
    they speak arrogantly against the righteous.
¹⁹ How abundant are the good things
that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you.
²⁰ In the shelter of your presence you hide them from all human intrigues;
you keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues.
²¹ Praise be to the Lord, for he showed me the wonders of his love
    when I was in a city under siege.
²² In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.
²³ Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
    The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
    but the proud he pays back in full.
²⁴ Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.



There is so much in this psalm that gives courage. There is the honesty of the complaint which is, as we are learning to appreciate, one of the great dispositions of the psalmist. But there is tremendous modelling and evidence of deep, faithful trust in God even in the midst of feelings of being besieged like a city (vs21) or feeling cut off from God’s love (vs22).
What is striking is how the psalmists describes God’s character in very solid nouns and concrete shapes, locations and places of safety and grace. God is, to the psalmist, a:
·      Rock of refuge and strong fortress (vs2)
·      Refuge (vs4 & in vs1 the psalmist turns this noun into a verb, a word of action)
·      Pair of hands, into whose care the psalmist finds peace and safety (vs5)
·      Spacious place – this could be also a description of God’s grace (vs8)
·      Hands which hold the future of the psalmist (vs15)
·      Shining face (vs16)
·      Shelter, where God’s presence is, a safe dwelling (vs20)

Location, location, location. This has become a focus in lockdown. We become attentive to our location. Some friends I know have begun tidying their homes with a feverish intensity. It is a recognisable psychological impact. As the locus of my life is tightened down, I am becoming more attentive to details of place. In wandering around the woods, I know where to find a particular woodpecker – as he drums out his beat and his territory, he knows his safe boundaries, the extent of his territory, his refuge as well as his spacious place. I know which log to sit on at a particular time of day to find the sun filtering warmly through the early beech tree canopies. I look for signs of hope.

The psalm ends with the great encouragement rather than trite words. We know these are not trite words because of the psalmist’s own experience of God in the midst of his or her suffering. They do display the disposition of courage which forms and shapes faithful living in the presence of God.  ‘Be strong,’ says the praying poet in vs24. ‘And take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.’

In many ways, faith is courage.

From that most terrible and agonising of locations, the cross, Jesus chose (in Luke's account of the crucifixion) to use the fifth verse of this psalm as his courageous act of commendation. He places himself into God's future. Luke 23.46 records it this way: 'Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, in your hands I commend my spirit." Having said this, he breathed his last.' This was Jesus' hope. A hope made solid and concrete by the resurrection and this Easter season.

I end with a poem which became well known last month, as Spring was just beginning to emerge. It appeared on a lot of Facebook feeds. It is a psalm for Covid19 days. It acknowledges realities but looks for hope. Here it is.

Lockdown[2]
by Brother Richard Hendrick

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.

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[1] New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

[2] https://mindfulness.ie/poetry/ Fr Richard Hendrick is a Capucin Franciscan friar from Ireland; this poem was first released on Facebook on March 13th 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZCi656kdqI