Thursday 28 May 2020

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 61: Listen to my prayer



Fifteen-year-old Jyoti Kumari, who made headlines in India for cycling 745 miles carrying her disabled father home after the pandemic lockdown forced him out of work
Psalm 61[1]
1   Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
2    From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint.
      Lead me to the rock that is higher than I;
3    for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
4   Let me abide in your tent forever,      
      find refuge under the shelter of your wings.                                           Selah
5    For you, O God, have heard my vows;      
      you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
6   Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations!
7    May he be enthroned forever before God;      
      appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!
8   So I will always sing praises to your name, as I pay my vows day after day.

‘From the end of the earth I call to you…’ This is a psalm for all people across the nations and from the ends of the earth. 
It is for people in the global south. People uprooted by climate change. Migrant workers on the road with no work because of Covid-19, desperate to get home but with no funds to do so.

Did you hear of the amazing story of 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari who cycled 745 miles carrying her disabled father home from Delhi after his rickshaw work ended because of the pandemic lockdown?[2] ‘It was a difficult journey,’ she said. ‘The weather was too hot, but we had no choice. I had only one aim in my mind, and that was to reach home.’ There is much, of course, that could be said about the desparation of many millions of poverty-stricken day-workers who have no financial support in these pandemic days. And much that could also be said about the 'romantacism' of poverty and determination which her emblematic story has perpetuated. She has been feted even by Ivanka Trump. But there are millions more who will not make the headlines.

Nonetheless, this is psalm for those whose heart is faint – like Jyoti must have been – and who are with God's help focused, in their desperation, on getting to that place of safety, that refuge, that strong tower, that ‘rock that is higher than I!’
Yet again, the theology of the psalms is very egalitarian, inclusive, open to all-comers. It articulates faith for those who know their need and, as in previous psalms, encourages those who have learned that God’s help is supreme. The ‘rock that is higher than I’ is a metaphor for this faithful God who always reaches to raise up no crush, whose desire is life not death, whose draws out of us a song of praise even when everything seems grim.

This psalm again wakes up in us, who are struggling on the path of life and faith, that simple prayer; a prayer which asks God to listen to us, to attend to us, because we have no other help.

Would you begin your prayers today with that simple cry: ‘Listen to my prayer.’ For here is the first simple step in the well-worn, long road of prayer. Jyoti’s 745-mile journey began with the first turn of the pedal. May this be the first turn of the pedal of prayer for you today. Who might you carry in that journey of prayer?

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/24/fifteen-year-old-in-india-cycles-745-miles-home-with-disabled-father-on-bike
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous31 May 2020 at 08:43

    I carry in prayer someone with a “fainting heart” who has felt as if she were at the end of what she can endure, her “end of the earth”. A long and complicated situation but involving her husband becoming ill enough to go to hospital where he was tested for Covid19. It came back negative but despite that he was still put on a covid ward against all her demonstrations, only to be discharged shortly afterwards. That then put her at risk. And this is when both are on the list of those receiving letters from the NHS to shield for 12 weeks. They have both had to be tested again and are waiting for results.
    The psalm, as always, portrays the reality of the life of people of faith - we have times of distress and anguish. Times when we feel utterly weak. On those days when we feel at the end of our tether we can cry out to God, or we may need others to cry out to God for us. Yet the psalm doesn’t leave us in our weakness for it reassures us with the knowledge that God our rock is “higher than I”. There’s the attitude of humility again. God is greater than us, we are not God. When we are at our weakest God almighty is our strength and safe refuge, whose wings cover us with steadfast love and protection

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