What storms are you aware of at the moment? What emotional, physical or societal bombardments might be affecting you or others you hold dear? Today’s reflection dwells on one of the bible’s sacred songs and wonders what we do when feeling overwhelmed.
Sometimes, when life events and our responses to them seem overwhelming, we can find ourselves wishing to escape from our own lives.
Can you recall a time when you have felt like this?
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Maybe you feel this way at the moment.
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One of the sacred songs in Hebrew Scripture captures this feeling - “I would fly away and be at rest”.
Bird photo by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash. Text is verses 6-8 of Psalm 55.
What or who, for you, is or could be a “place of shelter”?
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What is “life-giving” in times of “tempest and storm”?
Many millions of displaced people have had to physically “flee far away”. This might be because of warfare, climate change, sheer poverty or unsafe home environments.
It can be difficult to know how to pray for them and for our troubled, turbulent world. Just as seeing our own feelings reflected in a Psalm can help us endure our suffering, so sometimes our own lament is enough to offer solidarity to someone in need.
Jesus did not always seek to fix things. In the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 23, he simply laments for the city he loves: “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem…..”
Similarly, in writing to new Christians in Rome, the Apostle Paul affirms the value of emotional solidarity -
“...the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
Make some time to be silent before God, in lament for our beautiful, troubled world.
You may like to watch / listen to this performance of the hymn Rock of Ages as you reflect on these things: