In psalm 73 the psalmist expresses a sense of frustration with the way things are going in this world which I think we can all share. Especially his frustration at the seeming injustice whereby wicked people who exploit their fellow human beings and indeed the world itself, seem to prosper and get away with it:
They come in no misfortune like other folk: neither are they plagued like other men.
And this is the cause that they are so holden with pride: and overwhelmed with cruelty.
Their eyes swell with fatness: and they do even what they lust.
But as the psalm proceeds the psalmist in his perplexity goes into the sanctuary of God and has a vision, an insight in which he sees that we are all in God’s hands and that his Justice, as well as his truth and mercy will ultimately prevail: Yea, even like as a dream when one awaketh: so shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the city.
So in my poetic response I also seek to live in that ‘truth behind the daily veil’. I also take occasion by this psalm to honour and give thanks for the truth and beauty to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures.
These poems will all be gathered together and published on January 30th under the title David’s Crown. There is already an Amazon page for the book if you wish to pre-order it Here
Though one day the whole world will live in him
The story of his saving love began
In Israel and still we honour them,
The prophets of the coming Son of Man
Whose poetry and scriptures form our mind,
As with this psalmist, sharing all his pain,
His doubts and his frustrations. For we find
That all his old misgivings are our own.
So in this psalm he rails against the blind
Injustice, as it seemed to him, when men
Who lived by exploitation did so well
At the expense of those they cheat. But then
You showed him truth beyond the daily veil
How wickedness will vanish like a dream
And when we wake in you all will be well.
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We had 100 trucks full of mail at the airport that had not been sorted for Christmas. We’re under code red. So the mail sorters had to be socially distanced and they could not hire more people to help them sort. What a time this is !
Malcolm, whenever I read that quote I think of the song from Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, “As Dew in Aprille.” I’ve sung the work several times. It’s a good word, Malcolm, as the world falls apart, and as, in America, there is such a violent uprising against our democracy and governmente. I heard a video devotional by our pastor, condemning in no uncertain terms what has happened (and is and appears will continue), and he encouraged us from Ps. 46 to, among other things, be still and know that He is God. Stillness. How we all need that. And oh that Christians in our country who act as if they are at war could
“[Become] like him and [keep] this hope alive
That one day the whole world would live in him.”
Thank you so much for doing just that from across the Pond. Your work and words matter!
Happy New Year!
Lynn
Dear Malcolm,
I was amazed to hear of your connection to Nigeria. Please don’t feel you have to reply but i hope it’s encouraging that people read and are really blessed by what you write.
I’m older than you – 1948-but I went to Nigeria as a 3-year-old with my parents. My father was a missionary surgeon with S.U.M. so I grew up out there in the north and went to school in Jos, coming back to England to boarding-school when I was 11. This didn’t end my connection with Africa as I did V.S.O. in Ghana when I was 18 and now have a Ugandan son-in-law. Devastating what’s happening where I grew up. I’m grateful my parents are dead and don’t know.
Thank you again so much for your ministry .
Jane Richards
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Thanks Jane
I think those of us who had childhoods in Africa stay connected with that beautiful continent and also bring a helpfully different perspective to our lives here!
Thank you for this. The particular “prophet” is Asaph, whose psalms often include a “turn”, Psalm 73 at verse 17, psalm 74 at verse 13, psalm 75 at verse 9 … His psalms are experience with God, of they kind that our hero George Herbert often followed.