But Even Now There Is Hope

   Part of the greatness of the Psalms lies in the fact that they address all sorts and conditions of man. They address humanity’s common lot. The Psalms are like us and we are like them. Because the Psalms were written by inspiration, they are God talking to us. But their genius lies in the fact the voice heard in the book is really our voice—the voice of man’s common humanity—and it’s a voice that continues to ring true. The issues addressed in the Psalms persist, for they speak of life as it really is. When reading the Psalms, a cycle emerges, a cycle of life, a cycle to which all can relate. It consists of three stages that I’ll summarize this way: orientation, disorientation, reorientation.

Orientation is when life is good. Things are stable and secure and on an even keel. There hasn’t been much bad news to interrupt the ordinariness of every day. We are grateful for life’s uneventfulness. Psalm 145 is a prayer that might be offered during times of emotional equilibrium in our lives. Walter Brueggemann, in his book, Praying the Psalms, argues that most of the Psalms did not originate in a time of safety and security.

Disorientation, says Brueggemann, is the setting in which most of the Psalms were written. Disorientation refers to life when it is raw, when we are overwhelmed and nearly destroyed. “When the heart is stricken,” wrote H. Rider Haggard at the loss of his ten-year-old son, “the head is humbled in the dust,” and it is precisely during such times when life humbles us and drives us to the edge of our humanity that we discover our hunger for God and the need for His sustaining grace. Most of the Psalms were written during times of ordeal, stress, and tragedy. They are honest, engaging in no Pollyanna-view of life. From such times comes the deepest prayers and greatest eloquence in the book.

Reorientation. And then there are the psalms that speak of “newness of life” after the storm. The joy and praise in these psalms is not because God restores the status quo and returns life to normalcy (orientation) as if nothing happened. Rather, it is discovering that life can be rich after it has been emptied; having gone through the crucifixion (so to speak), we come to know the resurrection. Knowing the power of the resurrection (Phil. 3.10) comes through gifts of friendship and caring, gestures of reconciliation and forgiveness, etc. Whatever phase of the cycle you find yourself in, there is a psalm that will help you articulate the thoughts and emotions your having.

Kenny Chumbley