Mag letter July 2023
espite being in midsummer there are many reasons to be feeling low. You only have to listen to the news to become depressed about the state of the world and the nature of mankind. Psalm 77, for example, makes that very clear, but also suggests a remedy. Read it for yourself, it’s not long – just type Psalm 77 into Google if you haven’t a Bible to haDnd.
These are the words of a suffering man; the situation he finds himself in is enough to cause him to doubt God’s care and faithfulness. He is inconsolable, all that spiritual comfort, all the platitudes and pietistic words have drained away, he feels rejected and unloved, forgotten – merely the victim of a wrathful God. This is honest, this is real, we know this is how it feels… sometimes.
But the Psalmist is a man of stubborn faith, someone who knows that God is faithful, that God does love him and accepts him – even if all the signs are to the contrary. He understands that he cannot blame God for the way things are for him at this moment, or at any particular moment in time.
As with a great deal of Hebrew poetry the middle verses are where the heart of the piece is. They mark here a point of transition; the man finds a new way to see his situation, to restore balance and coherence in his thinking. He simply reminds himself of the context of his relationship with God.
It is quite clear from the Psalm that in the first 11 verses the poet’s attention is firmly upon himself. I, I, I is all he can think about, at the point of transition the psalmist looks away from himself and instead looks toward God. The last personal pronoun is in the 12th verse, “I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.” In meditating upon God the ‘I’ turns to ‘you’, the focus is changed and with it the effect of this man’s tragic situation. He looks up from the ditch and sees a brighter day dawning.
Almost in passing, during a recital of God’s power and care for the world, the poet notices that God works in ways that are hidden, unseen but to the eye of faith, even overlooked entirely to those who do not know the ways of God. “Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.” Your footprints were not seen.
The work of the faithful is faith; the response that God looks for is the response of relationship, of commitment, of openness. There is no, and in my view there will never be, any proof in this world of the existence of God. He is demonstrated only in relationship, understood only in prayer and meditation. The footprints he leaves are only in the hearts of men and women; and that is his place of action also, action to improve our world in myriad acts of kindness and generosity – and give us reasons to be cheerful
William