Psalm 10 - Kind and Soft Eyes
In my mind, I had initially crafted an entire reflection on how Psalm 10 (at least Fischer’s translation of it) could be heard to be speaking about social media. I think this now-ignored reflection was largely influenced by the chapter of Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again that I had read just before I read the Psalm. As I wrote, though, it came off more as a screed against social media than a thoughtful reflection.
So I went back to the Psalm and thought I saw something in it but I decided to drop the text in a word-cloud generator just to be sure. The word that showed up the most (largest in the word cloud) was, as I suspected...
Watching
In the Psalm, there is a contrast made between the “heedless” watching and God’s watching. The first half of the Psalm is both a lament of feeling God isn’t watching but also a message about the heedless. The Psalmist goes into excruciating detail of the ways that the heedless don’t think that God is watching and all their resulting heedless/ungodly actions.
The Psalm ends, though, with an acknowledgment of how God does, in fact, see:
You are watching!
You see all trouble and misaction
You give it its due with your own hand
The sufferer relies on you
The unprotected counts on your help
Break the arm of the heedless one
Search out his callousness thoroughly
Till there isn't any leftYou are sovereign endlessly
All lesser powers pass away
You hear the longing of the sufferers
And make them strong
By your listening
Knowing the unprotected and oppressed as they actually are
And thus no mortal of the earth can be arrogant
So, again, my first inclination in reflecting on the Psalm was the social-media-screed which then moved to the idea of “watching.” But still nothing was really coming together until this evening when I remembered what happened at Planet Fitness this morning as I was finishing my run and the social media screed was still bouncing around in my head.
As I was finishing my run, I looked to my left and there was Ebenezer, one of my colleagues in our Presbytery (our regional grouping of Presbyterian churches). I was so focused in on what I was reading as I ran that didn’t notice him come up and stand on the treadmill next to me to warmly wish me good morning at about 5:55am.
Ebenezer is one of the warmest, gentlest, kindest souls I know and he radiates God’s love and grace. He is a gift to the congregation he serves and he is a gift to anyone who knows him. But one of the most beautiful things about Ebenezer is his eyes. He has the kindest and softest eyes. He has the kind of eyes I imagine that God watches with as described (excluding the breaking arm part - geez was that really necessary Psalmist?) in those last few verses.
You are watching!...the unprotected counts on your help...you hear the longing of the sufferers and make them strong by your listening (and watching?). You know the unprotected and oppressed as they actually are...
I didn’t intend this but I love the fact that “judgment free” is behind the two of us. Kind eyes are judgment free eyes.
We need more soft, kind eyes like Ebenezer watching out for others in this world.
A few other things…First, Monday at 2pm ET,
and I will be having a Substack live conversation about community and connection inspired by Trevor Noah’s recent podcast conversation with Robert Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone (among many other books as well). I’d encourage you to take a listen to their podcast conversation and join us at 2pm ET on Monday.Second, just a reminder that Ordinary BenchMarks is now available on Amazon both as a paperback and as an ebook. You can find more details and links to order it here.
And finally, two photos from other parts of the day. The first is Scout as I was about to pull out of the driveway to head to the lake. One of my daughters texted me at that time asking for a photo. Scout was not too thrilled to be up…
And then this as we were finishing our walk. I loved how the sun shone not only in the sky but also in reflecting off the ice covered lake but also the ice still present in the parking lot.
Kind eyes, friends, kind eyes.
Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed
“Do you know how to make your eyes kind?”