A Verse A Day (Day 8)

 I continue to be taught by the 77^th Psalm, much to my chagrin. 

 

I had originally thought, and stated, that the psalmist begins with expressing present misery, then, strangely, turns to remembering the past as a way of finding encouragement. That was the source of my struggle with this text and began my reflections on the relation between the past and the present. Along the way, I’m realizing how culturally-driven our assumptions about past and present are and, all along, I am remembering how such terms are unavoidable and powerful for us, but not for God. Since God is eternal, then for God every moment is what one theologian called “The Eternal Now.” 

 

But, my beginning premise was not exactly right. Before the psalmist turns to the past to remember (vv.10-20), and while the psalmist is expressing his present misery (vv. 1-10), he looks backward (vv.5-6), saying, “I thought about the former days, the years of long ago;  I remembered my songs in the night.” Oh, those songs in the night! Those odes that call us to remember, that find their way into our dreams, where we connect with our ancestors and who we are beyond the simple horizon of our lifespan. The everpresence of the past – not the dead weight of things that matter no more, but the cumulative presence of our identity – the past! It’s not something we can turn off and on like a spigot. If we feel despair now it is because something wells within us from of old, that life is meant for joy and meaning, not something to be blown back and forth with every wind. 

 

The past, it seems, can be a source for encouragement. But, the past, it seems, is equally a source for our present misery. The past – whether we can remember it clearly or whether it is simply buried into our mitochondrial DNA – the past tells us that whatever befalls us does not define us. Even in our most wretched state, there is a vestigial remnant of that original glory, the breath of God that enlivened the dustling into life. In revealing our brokenness, the past shows us our path.