Psalm 2 - The Kingdom of What Is
First off, I am setting an intention to write on the Psalms each day but I am not going to have Substack send emails of my posts every day after this one. I’ll do a summary post each week but I don’t want to overstay my welcome in your inbox. I will cross-post them though on Substack notes, Facebook, and BlueSky. Or you can just visit imagoscriptura.com each day to see whether I have added to the posts. Onto Psalm 2.
Eleven years ago, I reflected on this Psalm with a photo of a road in South Carolina with live oaks overhanging the street. I was drawn to the end of Psalm 2 where the NRSV translates the last line as “happy are all who take refuge in him.” I saw those oaks as a refuge and a protection.
In Fischer’s translation (from Opening to You: Zen-Inspired Translations of the Psalms) the end of the Psalm sounds a lot different. While the last few verses (10 and 11) retain a sense of warning, he widens it out (from just kings and rulers in the NRSV) to the “heedless” in general and ends with a call to respect and honor what is.
Recognize the sovereignty of what is
Recognize it with awesome respect
Rejoice in it, but with care
Pay homage to it, but without greed
Lest the unnameable consume you in the leaping flames
Of loneliness, dispossession, and hatred
Happy are they who find their home
In the kingdom of what is
What I heard in this new way to read it was about honoring what is around us from the smallest and simplest to the big and awe-inspiring. As my heart often does, I went to Creation around us and these two images from this morning. An enormous raspberry and a beautiful sunrise. These two also speak of the respect of what is, to rejoice with care in creation, and to pay beautiful homage to it. But most of all they resonate with the last two lines...
Happy are they who find their home in the kindgom of what is.
Ordinary BenchMarks
One thing that I have found as I have also been re-reading my new book along the way is how, even though I wrote most of the reflections in October-December of this year, that they are somehow connecting very closely to what is going on for me (and I also see in the world around me as well) right now. You can pick up a copy from Amazon or a PDF ebook direct from me.
Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed
Thanks, Ed I like getting a recap at the end of the week. I really appreciate your photos and your insight into God‘s word and the world that we live in.
I went to church this morning and I felt isolated. I was there with my son and it was a good sermon and I enjoyed the songs that we sung; but afterwards I usually like to connect with folks. (Oh, by the way, there was a smell of sewage in the sanctuary backed up somewhere that they were gonna have to repair . )That didn’t help me focus real well. I tried to connect with some friends and one lady was just on her phone on the church website, but we couldn’t talk much.
I wonder Ed if it’s me thats disconnected and Satan and his little demonites are pricking and proding me trying to keep me away from the real Focus. That I was there to worship fellowship and be spiritually bathed in God‘s grace that was happening, even though I was feeling different about it . Have you ever experienced that?
"The kingdom of what is" could be reality. It could be acceptance. It sounds like a religious riddle.