Psalm 9.5 - Severance
So, a friend got my wife and I hooked on the AppleTV show, Severance. If you want to watch it, the less you know about it the better. But one thing I will say is that, true to the name, it is about people living separate lives. We have been binging the show (hopefully tonight watching the last 2 episodes of season 1) and so it is very much on my mind. I thought of Severance as Scout and I walked across the high bridge over the lake this morning and looked down at the still frozen water. This photo is from at least 20 feet above the water and ice that you see here is level all the way across. There’s just this dramatic separation.
There’s something of Severance in what I read in Psalm 9 but then noticed something at the beginning of Psalm 10 (Hence Psalm 9.5). This is another of the Psalms that Fischer did not translate so I was reading from the NRSV. Here’s what stood out to me in Psalm 9, verses 9-10
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Assuring, powerful, comforting words that are echoed a bit later in verse 18:
For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the poor perish forever.
Again, beautiful words of comfort and hope for the oppressed, those in trouble, the needy, the forgotten, the poor.
But because of the way that the Bible I was using is laid out, I also saw ahead to the beginning of Psalm 10 which says...
Why, O LORD, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
In arrogance the wicked persecute the poor—
let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.
The Psalm continues with a message about what I am pretty sure Fischer will translate as the “heedless” - in the NRSV, it speaks of the wicked, the greedy, and the evildoers. I’ll be reflecting more on Psalm 10 tomorrow but what a split between the hope and assurance and comfort of Psalm 9 and then a statement of the ways that the needy are forgotten, the poor are perishing, the oppressed are not in safe places, and those in trouble do not find strongholds.
Here are these two Psalms right next to each other reflecting two very different worlds.
But then again...maybe it isn’t too far off from reality is it? We can speak (and believe me I’m looking at myself here) of by-and-by of hope, comfort, and assurance for the oppressed, the troubled, the needy, and the poor but then there is the reality of how we continue to avoid the realities, continue to prop up systems that are widening the gap and fostering exclusion and injustice.
Dang. Not much has changed it seems in a few thousand years.
Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed
PS - A heart-shaped-donut-dog from early this morning...
