“Will your wonders be known in the dark,
or your righteousness in the country
where all is forgotten?” Psalm 88:12
I recently read Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, “Learning to Walk in the Dark. ” She challenges the prevalent metaphor that light is “good” and dark is “bad.” As part of her exploring “darkness” she spent time in silent meditation in the total darkness of a cave (with experienced friends). And she has a point. The psalms are full of images of “light” showing us how to walk God’s way and the darkness indicating the absence of God and the presence of evil. And the gospel of John, the gospel that I cherish most, is the worst offender when it comes to positive light and negative dark imagery.
So now I am reading this verse differently, challenging myself and the psalmist a bit. The psalmist is throwing the question at God as a lament, assuming God’s answer would be no. But what if the answer were yes? What if God’s wonders are made known even when I am totally in the dark? What if God’s righteousness and good will is working when I can’t see it? In the unsettling “darkness” God seems silent; I can’t discern the next step forward. I might even feel desolate and alone. Mystics have written about this darkness and discover God doing something beyond words and knowing. In “darkness” radical trust blossoms. Wasn’t that true of the cross? Weren’t God’s wonders made known in Christ’s trust and submitting to that darkness? And didn’t Christ’s darkness on the cross turn out to be the wonder of the deepest love we can imagine?
The word’s by Stephen Paulus in his anthem,second stanza, Pilgrim’s Hymn: “Even with darkness sealing us in, we breathe your name. And through all the days that follow so fast, we trust in you. Endless your grace beyond all mortal dreams….””
(The photo is from the C&O trail. It is a cave where civilians hid while the Civil War raged in the fields around them. I had no flashlight and have never been caving, so I didn’t go in much past the cave’s mouth.)
Suggestions:
1. Take this verse with you and ponder its meaning for you throughout the day. What do you notice? What do you wonder? What do you think can be positive about darkness—in reality or metaphor?
2. Or read all of Psalm 88 to discover how this verse fits into this psalm.
3. Or comment with a photo of your own that is a window of this verse’s meaning for you.
Tomorrow’s psalm will be Psalm 89:2.
Starting January 1, 2016, for 150 days I am posting a daily psalm verse with a photo that is a visual meditation on the text for me. Each day a verse from the next psalm is chosen until all 150 psalms have been featured. To participate you may subscribe to my blog at https://elainedent.net or “friend” me on Facebook and watch for the daily links to blog posts. Disclaimer: I am not a photographer and most of the photos are from a cell phone or small camera while hiking the Appalachian Trail or the C&O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage Trail.
Judith Plotner says
Thank you!
Sharon says
With Charles dementia, I sometimes feel we too are in the dark much of the time. But there are moments when I talk with him, hold his hand or am tending him when he will say something so “normal” so relevant that I will begin to laugh and then he will laugh and I look into his eyes and I see the man I loved and the man I love now..the darkness of dementia explodes, if only for the moment into the light of thanksgiving for all that was and for the blessings of now, for caring for him at home, for his otherwise healthy body and for those unexpected moments of “normal”. It reminds me that God is in our dark “dementia” moments just as he is in the light of gratitude and thanksgiving for our life together, then and now.
Elaine Dent says
Sharon, that is a weepingly beautiful illustration of love in darkness! Thank for the courage to share your reflection.