Originally published in the San Antonio Express-News February 18, 2023.
Not long ago a close friend gifted me with a book: The One Year Book of Psalms: 365 Inspirational Readings. Her Christmas gift was well-timed; I began reading a Psalm and commentary on 1 January as part of my morning meditation. Over many decades making retreats at various monasteries in the United States, I loved rising early to chant them with the monks. It enhanced the Psalms’ poetic wisdom; chanting them always brought a sense of healing.
Each day I find the Psalm for that day a source of joy in both its intentions as well as the rich poetic images in its language. Most specifically, the Psalms for January 19 and 20 were 11 and 12. They helped me realize, to cite another book of the Bible, that there may in fact be nothing new under the sun. Perhaps under the moon’s white light as well. The Psalms are extraordinary in giving the reader a context for today’s turmoil, placing some of the disruptions into a larger historical and mythical container, to be contemplated from a new angle.
Psalm 11 introduces a renewal of Trust in God. “I trust in the Lord for protection” even as “the wicked are stringing their bows.” Their goal, continues the Psalm, is “to shoot from the shadows at those who do right.” Emotionally, we are pulled in several directions: “The foundations of law and order have collapsed/What can the righteous do?” Yet we are comforted by this epic observation: “The Lord still rules from heaven,” which pulls us poetically into a much larger vision, beyond the limits of all forms of media narratives that often would have us despair. We gain a new access in learning that “He hates everyone who loves violence” for God’s love is “righteous and he loves justice.” And then this revelation: “Those who do what is right will see his face.”
Poetry sees into the invisibles underpinning the visible world and offers by way of analogies furthers visions of wholeness. They are meant to be contemplated, not analyzed away. As poems, Psalms carry or transport knowledge to the heart; for millennia it was understood as the seat of knowledge. Poetry is heart-knowing. Reading the Psalms is another form of prayer from the heart.
Psalm 12 continues several of the same themes: “Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing. . .. Neighbors lie to each other/speaking with flattering lips and insincere hearts.” We can sense that each Psalm is a short story that first outlines a conflict or obstacle in the human heart, then reveals a saving intervention. Like any good story, a conflict is necessary to even have an engaging narrative.
Hope appears in a rich image that encourages our attention: The Lord’s promises are pure/like silver refined in a furnace/purified seven times over.” By a rich analogy we can see more, not less, of God’s power and purity. The Psalms are all rich in analogies that encourage the human imagination to see more of what is present, and to see more deeply into the souls that God addresses. And “even though the wicked strut about, /and evil is praised throughout the land,” faith allows the reader to know that God “will protect the oppressed.”
Like all wisdom poetry, including “Proverbs,” Psalms offer visions of wholeness and well-being that lie deep within conflicts; they can aid in adjusting our priorities to what is timeless and constructive; in so doing, one may commune with what is eternal in the human heart to moderate the dragons of despair and desperation. Such is the power of the human imagination in dialogue with itself and a larger landscape. The Psalms recognize the poet in each of us.