Psalm 42 - Wholeness
So today is my first one really pushing back against the way that Fischer interprets/translates a Psalm. His end of Psalm 42 says this:
My hope is yet in you
And one day I will give you thanks
When I am whole
This really surprised me to read, especially that last line.... when I am whole. It definitely reads as if he is interpreting the last line of this Psalm to say that the only time thanks will be given is when wholeness comes. First, I am not sure that’s an accurate re-interpretation of the actual text of the Psalm. The NRSV translates it as “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.” Yes there’s a future sense to it but it doesn’t sound conditional. It sounds instead like it is just looking ahead, trusting in how God will help.
I also push back against this because I don’t like the idea that the only time to give thanks to God or to be grateful in general is when “wholeness” comes. I have come to the recognition in my life that the scars, the wounds, the broken parts, etc of me are a big part of who I am. It isn’t about getting rid of all of them but instead how they are a part of me.
And this is where the last labyrinth photo comes in for this last week. When I prayed the labyrinth near my house yesterday morning before worship (and before the sun had really started to rise - thank you DST) I saw all these rocks on the center rock at the heart of the labyrinth. Each one of those rocks represented something that a person offered up there at the center. Some may have been gratitudes and thanksgiving but my guess is that a lot of them represented some form of brokenness that someone was feeling. Something in their own life or in the world. I know the rock that I placed there represented that. And many of those rocks themselves were clearly rough and looked like parts were broken off. None were fully “whole.” Yet there at the center was this place for all these broken pieces to be shared and offered.
There in the center, I saw hope in all those broken pieces brought together.
Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed
PS - Maybe a perfect photo of Scout…It is a look like this that makes us suckers …
How shall we live? What shall we say? In each breath, Emmanuel, God with us.
Thanks Ed for that photo of Scout, we will give those dogs anything when they look that way. I have a beagle and she looks that way often.
Also, I appreciate the photo of the rocks… I always love your photos. They really inspire me.
Getting down deep to what really bothers me grabbing a stone and putting it in the center to give it away to God and not go back and pick up that stone. That’s letting go.