Psalm Photos - 43 - Disquiet
Psalm 43
Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; from those who are deceitful and unjust deliver me!
For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?
O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
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Disquiet - not a word I use or hear too often. Yet, here it was both in Psalm 42 yesterday and 43 here today. To me, the word doesn’t just mean noise (the opposite of quiet), but instead something like static, distracting noises, fingernails on the chalkboard, or feedback in a sound system. Noises that you can’t ignore no matter what you try to do. Working in a church, I have had my share of battles with sound systems and I know the ever present reality of the gremlins that like to get into what were smoothly-running systems. Ain’t that a picture of how life can be sometimes?
I looked at the definition in the dictionary for disquiet and it focused on worry and anxieties. Aren't those static, feedback, distracting so often in life?
The question that came to mind for me in reading this Psalm and hitting the word “disquiet” once again was what is my soul level right now? Its what led to the picture for today - sound sliders on one of the church sound boards at varying levels - one down low, one in the middle, and one pushed all the way up. Where is your soul level right now? If your soul level is pushing out static or feedback noises, what quiets it? What brings you to a place where you can say with the Psalmist - “Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.”