Psalm 5 - The Path
Ok, I have been wrangling with this Psalm for over a week now. I really love the song that PBH put together based on the Psalm but each time I started to write, nothing was coming. As I re-read the Psalm the last several days while still listening to the song, I started to recognize something in the words of the Psalm itself. It is very much a back-and-forth about what feels to me like two different paths for a person to follow. Verses 1-3, 7-8, and 11-12 all seem to focus on the path of the righteous and the other verses are those following another path.
So, I could have looked for a space with two diverging paths but I instead wanted to go with how the song expresses this Psalm - with a focus upon the path that God lays before us. It is easy to look at the other path and say “that’s not the way!” But I think that what God desires is for us to look at the path that I am walking (that we are walking). So, that’s why there’s only one path in this photo. For me, the path of God, the Way of Jesus, the guiding of the Spirit, is a path of beauty but also a path that isn’t entirely clear what is ahead. As this photo shows, there is beauty and vibrance and life along this path. But the path curves up ahead and where it goes is not obvious. It could lead to an equally beautiful space or it could be something far different. But it is still the path.
Even though the writer of this Psalm asks for God to “make your way straight before me” I don’t think that the way of God has ever been a straight line path. But instead some twists and turns, hills and valleys. But the right way nonetheless.
give ear to my words lord consider my groaning
give ear to the sound of my cry oh kind king oh god of mine
oh lord in the morning you hear my voice
in the morning i wake and you see my dawn’s sacrifice
through the abundance of your steadfast love
i’ll enter your house lord bow down toward
your holy temple in good fear of you
lead on oh lord make your way straight before me
let all who take refuge in you
rejoice, rejoice, rejoice
let them ever sing
let them ever sing
let them ever sing
for joy joy joyPoor Bishop Hooper, Psalm 5 - Link to Song
