Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 7: O love that will not let us go

Children have been painting pictures of rainbows all over the UK as a sign of hope and loving care in our current health crisis. This rainbow sprang up over Warley Woods one summer. The picture was taken by Simon Lea Photography

O love that will not let us go


1    O Lord my God, in you I take refuge;  ♦
save me from all who pursue me, and deliver me,
2    Lest they rend me like a lion and tear me in pieces  ♦
while there is no one to help me.
3    O Lord my God, if I have done these things:  ♦
if there is any wickedness in my hands,
4    If I have repaid my friend with evil,  ♦
or plundered my enemy without a cause,
5    Then let my enemy pursue me and overtake me,  ♦
trample my life to the ground,
and lay my honour in the dust. [R]
6    Rise up, O Lord, in your wrath;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies.  ♦
Awaken, my God, the judgement that you have commanded.
7    Let the assembly of the peoples gather round you;  ♦
be seated high above them: O Lord, judge the nations.
8    Give judgement for me
according to my righteousness, O Lord,  ♦
and according to the innocence that is in me.
9    Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous;  ♦
for you test the mind and heart, O righteous God. [R]
10  God is my shield that is over me;  ♦
he saves the true of heart.
11  God is a righteous judge;  ♦
he is provoked all day long.
12  If they will not repent, God will whet his sword;  ♦
he has bent his bow and made it ready.
13  He has prepared the weapons of death;  ♦
he makes his arrows shafts of fire. [R]
14  Behold those who are in labour with wickedness,  ♦
who conceive evil and give birth to lies.
15  They dig a pit and make it deep  ♦
and fall into the hole that they have made for others.
16  Their mischief rebounds on their own head;  ♦
their violence falls on their own scalp.
17  I will give thanks to the Lord for his righteousness,  ♦
and I will make music to the name of the Lord Most High.


Pursuit. This is a word that stands out in today’s psalm, for me: that sense of being chased down. When our children were younger, they got a great thrill out of being chased by us, their mum and dad. Especially if we walked or ran oddly or had weirdly exaggerated expressions on our faces. And if the chasing game started in the sitting room, running round, it would escalate in fun and noise as they scampered up the stairs with us in pursuit.

But being chased down is not great fun, most of the time. It has a sinister edge. It is the stuff of nightmares. Our subconscious in sleep tries to exorcise these horrible feelings of being stuck while our pursuers seem to speed up. I reckon we all have that latent fear of being caught by some unseen enemy, whether an imagined creature or hooded human.

Yet, the Gospel, indeed the whole of Scripture, sings aloud of another pursuit; that of a love that will not let go of us. One of my favourite hymns is the Victorian composer George Matheson’s most popular pieces, O love that will not let me go. It is a pursuit which goes down into the very depth of human suffering. It's a pursuit which takes God, in the person of his Son Jesus, into the place of identifying with the neediest person's plight. It is a pursuit that does not dodge suffering but goes through it and beyond it. Christ would not let go until the work of redemption was done even as he was hounded down by false accusers who were threatened by this love. This love is our refuge, our safe person, our safe place, where racing hearts can find a calm rhythm. In the daily rhythm of morning, evening and night prayer in the Church of England, we always begin our worship by acknowledging this pursuing loving God. We say: 'O God, make speed to save us; O Lord, make haste to help us.'

In today’s psalm, we hear the prayer of an almost breathless person whose enemies are bearing down on them. It appears that he or she have been falsely accused and cry out a protestation of innocence, not unlike Job. The psalmist is so convinced of their sense of righteousness that they have the courage to stand by their convictions, even if they are overtaken by their pursuers. Even if their life is trampled out of them and their ‘soul’ or ‘glory’ (vs 5) is lies in the dust. The writer is so convinced that God’s knowledge of their righteousness is strong, that God will be roused to action on their behalf. What’s more, we see again the hyperbole of the Hebrew poet – God’s anger against unrighteousness is such that in the end it is inevitable that these enemies will be chased down. ‘Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends,’ he says in triumph (vs16).

So we have a pursuing God who is indignant ‘every day’ (vs11) and a God of faithful loving mercy who will not let us go when we are being chased down. This love will not run out of energy and will not be overtaken by our pursuers. I am comforted by a loving God who can out-pursue my fears. I am comforted by an indignant God who will never stop being indignant on behalf of the needy and inspires others in indignation, even when they are not given permission to speak out – like an intensive care nurse from a hospital in the north of England on Channel 4 news tonight who spoke of her sense of  pursuing fear for her colleagues who are going to put their lives on the line for others in the coming weeks as the tsunami of cases hits our shores. She called on the Government to ensure all critical care nurses and doctors are properly protected from the virus as they care for those who have been overtaken by its virulence. 


Even as we watch this unfolding battle for the lives of the vulnerable and the weak, as if a slow-motion film, may we know the loving pursuit of an indignant God who is urging us on and who will not let us go. Here is a stunning rendition of this compelling hymn: 

1.     O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

2.      O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

3.      O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

Psalm 7: Common Worship: Daily Prayer, material from which is included here,
is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2005 and published by Church House Publishing.

O love that will not let me go: sung by the Westminster Chorus www.westminsterchorus.org

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 6: A prayer of faith in times of distress

A Prayer of Faith in Time of Distress

Psalm 6 New King James Version (NKJV)

O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,
Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
² Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled;
But You, O Lord—how long?

⁴ Return, O Lord, deliver me!
Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake!
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of You;
In the grave who will give You thanks?

⁶ I am weary with my groaning;
All night I make my bed swim;
I drench my couch with my tears.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief;
It grows old because of all my enemies.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity;
For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
⁹ The Lord has heard my supplication;
The Lord will receive my prayer.
¹⁰ Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled;
Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.

Having faith is about being aware of our need and weakness rather than self-sufficiency and strength. In Psalm 6, we eavesdrop on the prayer of a writer – a poet – made needy by sickness. This is the first psalm in the psalter which takes up the cudgels on behalf of the bedridden and diseased. We learn that the supplicant is weak and in need of healing, troubled both in body and in soul and wondering HOW LONG is this affliction going to go on for? 

As tonight we learn that in UK, as in other European nations, we face a new future of a fairly tough 'lock-down', another way of feeling curtailed and constrained, and also untethered because our purposes and lives feel like they are being stripped away day by day, we might all be asking this question HOW LONG?

That sense of being out of control and in the grip of great uncertainty really holds our attention here. We learn more. The person at the heart of this prayer of lamentation suggests this illness puts both the blame and their hope in the lap of God. The present and the future are quite simply in the lap of the gods! This afflicted soul is weary with groaning (vs 6), his bed ‘swims’ with his tears (vs 6), her eyes waste away with grief (vs 7), they even seem to grow old in the sorrow of it. And then, there is a change of heart and mind. Linked to the physical illness is a sense that others are engineering things to the psalmist’s detriment – ‘Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity,’ he cries out. Why? What’s changed here? Well it seems that it has been through the very act of weeping, and crying out the supplication for a turn-around, the writer has a wonderful sense of God not only hearing the prayer – but that this receipt of the prayer will lead to the afflicted one’s enemies (who are these people?) being put to shame. The structure of vs10 is interesting. As we are discovering with Hebrew poetry, the terse and careful construction of the verses creates waves of reverberation. Shame, trouble and yet more shame seem to surround the enemies.

One of the things I am learning about the Psalms in general, and also in particular, is the necessity to pay close attention to their structure as well as their meaning. Often the psalmist will introduce a line and then re-emphasise the meaning with a second (and even a third) more focused line. We learn in vs1 that the poet feels ‘rebuked’ and then ‘chastened’ by God’s ‘anger’ and then ‘hot displeasure’. And s/he asks God to stop. S/he then describes their body as being ‘weak’, and their bones as being ‘troubled’ – then s/he takes up that word troubled and applies it to their soul as well. 

How often, when we are ill and feel out of control, do we tend to tell of our symptoms and speak out about how we feel, often quite repetitively. We can perhaps identify with the specifics of tears on our pillow or even onto our sheets. The non-specific nature of the psalmists situation is part of the genius of these writings. They enable us to inhabit them. They enable us to enter into them, They enable us to find that they speak of our situations.

How many of those who are watching and waiting over afflicted loved ones, or who are living through the symptoms of Covid19 themselves, would find comfort in this prayer of faith in a time of distress? How many would blame God and then also seek God to bring relief and comfort?

Lord Jesus Christ,

may the tears shed in your earthly life

be balm for all who weep,

and may the prayers of your pilgrimage

give strength to all who suffer;

for your mercy’s sake.

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 5: In the morning you hear our prayers

In the morning you hear my voice

¹ Give ear to my words, O Lord;
    give heed to my sighing.
² Listen to the sound of my cry,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.
³ O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
    in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.

⁴ For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
    evil will not sojourn with you.
⁵ The boastful will not stand before your eyes;
    you hate all evildoers.
⁶ You destroy those who speak lies;
    the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.

⁷ But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
    will enter your house,
I will bow down towards your holy temple
    in awe of you.
⁸ Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies;
    make your way straight before me.

⁹ For there is no truth in their mouths;
    their hearts are destruction;
their throats are open graves;
    they flatter with their tongues.
¹⁰ Make them bear their guilt, O God;
    let them fall by their own counsels;
because of their many transgressions cast them out,
    for they have rebelled against you.

¹¹ But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
    let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
    so that those who love your name may exult in you.
¹² For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
    you cover them with favour as with a shield.

There is a beautiful Hebrew word that is translated as ‘steadfast love’ in the NRSVA translation being used today (vs7). It is pronounced ch-es-ed but in Romanised alphabet would be spelt hesed. This is the first time, but definitely not the last time, that it makes an appearance in the Psalter. But our English bibles serve up a very thin translation, a beautiful but tiny plateful of a word when what is required is a feast. It is a pair of words we might swallow rather two hurriedly when we hit the 106 and 107^th words in Psalm 5.

To switch metaphors rather too obviously, if a covering of snow was the nature of God, this word is like a giant snowball which rolls into one word a whole load of other words. My commentary puts it this way: ‘It is difficult to translate because it rolls into one the concepts of God’s grace, mercy, compassion, patience, faithfulness, loyalty and love.’[1] We will come across it again, most famously, when we get to Psalm 23. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.

This psalm is another prayer. It begins with three verses which, in their syntax, surround God (named as ‘Lord’ in vs1 and ‘my King and my God’ in vs2) with cries and prayers and sighing and requests. How many wake up with sighs and cries and request each day? This faithful praying is rooted not in the troubles which surround the psalmist (who appears to suffer at the hands of vile, deceitful, bloodthirsty people) but in the abundant steadfast love of God. He is realistic about the storm that surrounds him, but his prayer is motivated by the character of God. And at the end, the psalmist tells of the joy of living a free life under the protective and shielding love of God. It is almost as if the psalmist, who bows down low in prayer, senses the closeness of God surrounding him or her. No social distancing with God!

Today the words of the PM reiterated the need for social distancing. On a beautiful spring day, where so many have been out and about and not keeping to this guidance, he again urged people to keep at least two metres from each other in order to play our bit in slowing down the spread of the virus in order to act with loving kindness for others. And as we heard in this evening’s Mother’s Day briefing from Downing Street, the word used with clarity was ‘shielding’. ‘We need to go further and shield the most vulnerable members of our society to save their lives,’ said Robert Jenrick, the government minister for housing and community. The practical matter of ensuring that the most vulnerable get their food and medicines was outlined so as to reduce fears of people who are from now told to stay behind closed doors for 12 weeks.

Today’s psalm concludes with the word ‘shield’. Every word in this psalm is moving us to this hopeful credal statement: that the God of faithful love and loyalty and compassion surrounds the righteous (ie those who do not act in bloodthirsty, hateful, selfish ways). The psalms often talk in very black and white terms about the righteous (ones who choose to belong to God - a 'belonging' that is simply based on the reality that they acknowledge they are not self-sufficient but are very vulnerable and needy) and the wicked/enemies (who take the law into their own hands and act without reference to the needs of the weakest in society). In this health crisis, those who become enemies of the vulnerable are those who fail to act with loving kindness. May we do all we can to shield the vulnerable.

As we surround God with our prayers, so may those who feel they are surrounded by danger discover the shielding love of God through the steadfast 'marathon-running' persistence of care needed in the coming months - a steadfast love that protects the vulnerable in very many practical ways from enemies and the careless who choose not to heed the needy but sprint away from those responsibilities. 

Lord, protect us from the deceit

of flattering tongues and lying lips;

give us words of life which speak your truth

and bless your name;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

---

[1] The New Interpreters Bible (Vol 4) © Abingdon Press 1996, pg700

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 4: You alone, O Lord

You alone, O Lord
(from The Message translation)

When I call, give me answers. God, take my side!
Once, in a tight place, you gave me room;[1]
Now I’m in trouble again: grace me! hear me!
² You rabble—how long do I put up with your scorn?
How long will you lust after lies?
How long will you live crazed by illusion?
³ Look at this: look
Who got picked by God!
He listens the split second I call to him.
^4-5 Complain if you must, but don’t lash out.
Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking.[2]
Build your case before God and wait for his verdict.
^6-7 Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say.
“More, more.”
I have God’s more-than-enough,
More joy in one ordinary day
^7-8 Than they get in all their shopping sprees.
At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life back together.

Today’s focus from the Government was to ask people to be considerate and stop the panic buying. ‘Be responsible when you shop. Think of others. As you shop think of those who are finishing the late shift after a long day (in the hospitals),’ said Environmental Secretary George Eustice today. ‘There is more than enough food to go round.’ There has been a peak in demand like Christmas says the British Retail Consortium.

Today’s psalm, in Eugene Petersen’s marvellous translation from The Message, addresses the rampant consumerism that grips our country at present in very pertinent ways. Verse 6 and 7 in his translation read thus: Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say. “More, more.” I have God’s more-than-enough, More joy in one ordinary day  than they get in all their shopping sprees. Yesterday we were troubled to hear the cries of a critical care nurse called Dawn who was reduced to tears when she found her local supermaket emptied by panic buying. 'Where am I to get the food I need to stay healthy?' she asked in this short video which has gone viral. 

Yet again, the psalmist is at pains to contrast the way of living that believes ‘everything is down to me’ and a complete switch of mindset that acknowledges a much deeper sense of belonging to God which overcomes all anxieties and panics even in the face of very real anxieties and panics. This psalm, like yesterday's, characterises such a person – who trusts in God rather than their own strength – as one who is able to lie down and sleep and wake again the next day sustained by God’s love. 

Oh that we had that deeper trust. Speaking for myself, my sleep has become less easy over the years – like so many of my friends and family! And I can’t help but acknowledge that I have been infected by the rush and craziness of our culture which does not take breath. I acknowledge that I have built up a deep store of self-dependence which is not really giving me peace.

I am grateful for the Book of Psalms to help re-orientate my life in a time of profound disorientation. I also am grateful for the way in which, in these days, I am finding it possible to reconnect with good relationships and find time for ordinary things too. I have just cut the lawn, reclaimed the grassed over stepping stones in the garden and tied back plants that had become loosened by the recent winds. There is a sense of greater spaciousness in the day now that face-to-face appointments have dried up.

Psalm 4 opens with an interesting reflection on how God works in the human heart and life. The NRSVA version is helpful here. In vs1, the psalmist says: ‘Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.’ My commentary tells me that the Hebrew verb rahab, here translated as ‘gave me room’ literally means ‘wide’, while the noun sar (we simply note this strange co-incidence of a word connected with a virus), here translated as ‘distress’, means ‘narrow’. 

As our lives are narrowed down by isolation and illness, may we all know the wideness of God’s mercy expressed through the kindness of strangers and the help of health professionals. But also may we also find the spaciousness of God's love and mercy and grace when we are narrowed down by our own distress. May we find ways to trust again in God. And in doing so may we find our way into a spacious place again, a spacious place of health and loving care – a space such as a well cared-for garden with re-discovered stepping stones to a grateful life.

---

[1] NRSVA: You gave me room when I was in distress.

[2] NRSVA: When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent

Psalms for Turbulant Times - Psalm 3: Trust in God under adversity

Trust in God under Adversity

¹ O Lord, how many are my foes!    Many are rising against me;
² many are saying to me, ‘There is no help for you in God.’Selah

³ But you, O Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
⁴ I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill.Selah

⁵ I lie down and sleep;  I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.
⁶ I am not afraid of tens of thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.

⁷ Rise up, O Lord!    Deliver me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.

⁸ Deliverance belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people!Selah

How do we find the words in these days to uphold people? What words of comfort can we reach for?

Politicians have their place: 'We will get through this together and we will beat this virus, I want to ram that message home,' says Boris Johnson today. And this evening, the State has come to the aid of many in the most extraordinary and unprecedented series of economic actions. 'We will not get through this alone,' says Rishi Sunak, our Chancellor. 'The Government is doing its best to stand behind you, and we ask you to do your best to stand behind your Government,' he said. 'Now more than any other time in history we will be measured by compassion and acts of kindness. When this is over, and it will be over, we want to look back on this moment and remember the many small acts of kindness done by us and to us... in a collective national effort. It is on all of us.'

But we also have the Psalms, and today's is Psalm 3. This is the first psalm which has the first prayer for help in the psalter. And the big theme is this - that God helps those who cannot help themselves, those who feel besieged, those are told that God will not deliver them. We live in a culture where self-sufficiency is the code of life - which is why the virus is such a devastating over-turner of this code. 

What I love about this psalm is its honesty, its faith, its portrayal of a real relationship between the pray-er and the one to whom the prayers are addressed. My commentary helpfully points out a rather wonderful theological point encased by the syntax of the first verse. It starts with the word 'Lord' and ends with the word 'me' and between these words are the 'foes'. 'Thus the word order represents what the foes are attempting to do - to stand between the psalmist and God,' writes commentator J Clinton McCann Jr. Verse 2 continues with a huge sense of being overwhelmed by enemies. Three times in three lines the psalmist emphasises the word 'many'. These foes even say God will not deliver him. In the NRSVA translation used today, though, the last word in vs2 is the word God. 'Thus the two references to the Lord/God open and close this section. God has the enemies surrounded,' he says, with a wonderful turn of phrase.

While it is quite true that the economic actions of the State announced tonight will sustain many millions of people through this crisis - and no doubt help to reduce stress and panic - the Psalm continues with the much bigger overarching picture of a God who is intimately concerned for our wellbeing. This God, in whom we trust. who always comes to the aid of those who cannot help themselves, sustains us as we sleep and as we wake (vs5). This God, in whom we trust, offers deliverance from our deepest worries and anxieties which neither Rishi nor Boris can deliver us. For they too are only human. They too are not gods. They too, like us, cannot do this alone. And they, too, like us, need the shielding grace of God. They too, like us, need the sustaining power of God who has given them life.

What words of comfort can we offer to others? What comforting words energise us to put others' first in these days? What comfort does this Psalm 3 bring you tonight as you lie down and sleep and wake again sustained by God's love? Perhaps you would like to sing the psalm using the Northern Irish singer-songwriter Ian White's setting.For from the Lord, at work in all of us, will come deliverence. 'We will get through this together, by God's grace.' 

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 2: God's promise to His anointed

God’s Promise to His Anointed

¹ Why do the nations conspire,
    and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers take counsel together,
    against the Lord and his anointed, saying,
³ ‘Let us burst their bonds asunder,
    and cast their cords from us.’

⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs;
    the Lord has them in derision.
⁵ Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
    and terrify them in his fury, saying,
⁶ ‘I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.’

⁷ I will tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to me, ‘You are my son;
    today I have begotten you.
⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
    and the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron,
    and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’

¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
    be warned, O rulers of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear,
    with trembling ¹² kiss his feet,
or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way;
    for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Happy are all who take refuge in him.

I can never read this psalm without thinking of Handel's setting of the opening verse in his great choral work, The Messiah. His orchestration has the strings - in particular the cellos and the basses - furiously working away creating a mounting sense of anger and musical stress while the bass soloist thunders out: 'Why do the nations so furiously rage together and why do the people imagine a vain thing?'

Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are meant to be read together. They are the great opening to the great Book of Psalms. They paint the big picture. And they hold up the big message: depend upon God, trust God, take refuge in God. 

These are days of overwhelming sadness. It feels like we are suddenly being cast into a very fast moving stream of human history. The words of our time are 'self-isolation' and 'social-distancing'. These paint pictures of autonomy and alone-ness and solo-action to protect in order to survive. Both these psalms, 1 & 2, point to what it is to live a blessed life. We are reminded by this psalm that God is sovereign and that we live under the arc of God's love. Both psalms, my commentary says: 'Commend a dependence upon God that is the antithesis of autonomy.'

Scenes of autonomy this week have included shameful fights in supermarkets for food and loo rolls, selfish profiteering of hand-sanitisers (a small bottle going for £20 on ebay) and a general atmosphere of 'me-first'. This echos the language of the opening verses of this psalm - fury, rage, plotting. The Hebrew word for plotting is haga. But in a play on words, the same word is the root for meditate in vs2 of Psalm 1. The one who is blessed/happy does not plot, but meditates and delights in the law of God both day and night.

God laughs and scoffs at the foolishness of human autonomy - yet seeks those who do not plot but rather meditate. God must get so frustrated and angry with our plotting - whether in the supermarket aisle or in the myriad other ways we try to get one over others. Yet he patiently waits for those who meditate and in their meditation 'take refuge' in him. Not to run away from the world, but to be strong for the world.


² 

Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 1: The two ways

Psalm 1: The Two Ways

¹ Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
² but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.
³ They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.

⁴ The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
⁶ for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked, will perish.

They are like trees planted by streams of water
We are beginning a walk into a future which is bewildering humanity. Not just the virus but the waves of consequences which hit us like big breakers each time we turn on the news or read another post on Facebook or receive a notification from our networks. 

The Psalms have always been the go-to book for Jews and Christians through the millennia. For they speak truth into times of great sorrow and turbulence. They give voice to our deepest concerns. And, as is so rich and profound through the wisdom of our biblical heritage, they give permission to voice our unuttered fears and worries to God - who listens, and sticks with us and shares in our difficulties utterly and without fear.

Tonight I consider the wisdom of the trees whose life is sustained by living water, the waters Jesus speaks about in John 4, the water that wells up from deep springs of love which will never run out. These trees are nourished by sticking to that source of life which is a way of life, a way of life which finds sustenance in daily rootedness, roots that discover hope in the rhythm of prayer and reflection. This rhythm of faithful prayer in light and dark, day and night, is the heartbeat of the Church. And although we cannot gather for these times to pray, we can be sure that God is present in every utterance, every tear, every cry and every honest voice right across this world tonight.

Christ our wisdom,
give us delight in your law,
that we may bear fruits of patience and peace
in the kingdom of the righteous;
for your mercy’s sake.