Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 82 - The Salt Path

Psalm 82[1]

¹ God has taken his place in the divine council;
               in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
² “How long will you judge unjustly
               and show partiality to the wicked?                                                              Selah
³ Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
               maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy;
               deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
⁵ They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
               they walk around in darkness;
              all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
⁶ I say, “You are gods,
               children of the Most High, all of you;
⁷ nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,
                and fall like any prince.”
⁸ Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
               for all the nations belong to you!

What might the ‘gods’ of our time be that show partiality to the self-centred, self-referenced, self-dependent? What ‘gods’ walk around in darkness (vs5) without knowledge or understanding (vs5) and fail to give justice to the weak, the orphan, the lowly and the destitute (vs4).

I have just finished reading the Salt Path[2], by Raynor Winn. It tells the true story of a middle-aged couple who have lost everything – home, livelihood, and in the case of Moth (Ray’s husband), health. Just days after being stripped of their farm and land in a court case, Moth is told by a hospital consultant that he has a terminal condition (CBD or corticobasal degeneration) and possibly two years to live. He is advised to rest, walk very little and be careful on stairs. His condition will lead to loss of muscle function and mobility.

With just £320 in all the world, they buy a cheap tent, cheap sleeping bags and set off on a 630-mile odyssey walking the ‘salty path’ which is the clifftop South West Coast Walk from Minehead to Poole. They wild camp, live of very little and become homeless hikers. In so doing, they soon discover how they become the victims of casual hostility from locals and tourists alike. They begin to smell. Their clothes become part of their bodies (peeled off only once in a while). They are told to move on in tourist towns. Considered to be homeless scum by many. They become destitute, lowly and weak. And yet over the months of unremitting pain, rain, salt and wind, as they are stripped of all they have been, they come to a point of acceptance, freedom and joy. The kindness of the powerless is part of the story. But so is the ability of some to see with new eyes and not to be guided by the ‘gods’ of self-preservation or the kind of harsh judgment of privilege.

In Psalm 82, the psalmists imagines a mythological meeting of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of all things with the ‘gods’ of the world. ‘They’ have been failing humanity. They have attended only to the needs of the ‘wicked’ – as we are gathering, the wicked in the world of the psalmist are those who have no need of God, whose lives are self-sufficient and privileged. These ‘gods’ reward those who have money, esteem, power and a place of certainty in society. They do not care for those on the edge, the rejected destitute, those on the ‘salt path’.

The psalm instead cries out for God to take over, for God’s kindly kingdom to reign. The psalm imagines God’s heartfelt judgment on the heartless gods who rule the earth. This is the vision of God’s kingdom -that justice and equity (putting right the wrongs of those who suffer at the hands of the powerful) is generously given to the weak (economically? socially? politically), destitute, needy, lowly and orphaned.

At the end of the Salt Path, Ray and Moth have their dignity, their freedom, a sense of direction and a future hope. Kindness comes through the listening ear of strangers who have no means and who have privileged means. They both discover, on the salt path, a calling (one to writing, the other to further study). They find a way of recalibrating their lives. And through remarkable ‘coincidences’ (what might be viewed as God’s providence – though this would be me straining things beyond their current worldview) their wilderness walk takes them from nothing and a deep worry about nothingness  to a joyous fullness. The ‘gods’ of harm and ruin have been found wanting. And a kindly spirit has guided them home. 

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[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] Penguin Books, ©2019