In my last post I wrote that from my place of white privilege, the lament psalms don’t seem to apply much to me at the moment. Instead I find myself resonating and praying them with those who are struggling with racial injustice and for all people who with them are working for change. Protests continue around the nation and world, and some of my colleagues and neighbors will be protesting that “Black Lives Matter” in Gettysburg tonight. While I can’t go out protesting, I have been educating myself by reading and conversations in order to dismantle my privilege and be part of the change.
Yesterday I started reading “Meditations of the Heart,” written in 1953 by Howard Thurman, a black spiritual leader who particularly influenced Dr. Martin Luther King and his call to non-violent protest of racial injustice. What is striking about Thurman is that his call for justice is first and foremost rooted in his relationship with God and listening to the inner voice that emerges in prayer—in the sanctuary of the heart in God’s presence. In the first meditation, “An Island of Peace within One’s Soul,” Thurman writes (before the time of inclusive language):
“No one is ever free from the peculiar pressure of his own life. Each one has to deal with the evil aspects of life, with injustices inflicted upon him and injustices which he wittingly or unwittingly inflicts upon others. We are all of us deeply involved in the throes of our own weaknesses and strengths, expressed often in the profoundest conflicts within our own souls….The only possibility of stability of the person is to establish an Island of Peace within one’s soul….This is the place where there is no pretense, no dishonesty, no adulteration….What one really thinks and feels about other people far and near is seen with every nuance honestly labeled: love is love, hate is hate, fear is fear. Well within this island is the Temple where God dwells—not the God of the creed, the church, the family, but the God of one’s heart. Into His Presence one comes with all of one’s problems and faces His scrutiny. What a man is, what his life plans are, what his authentic point is, where his life goes—all is available to him in the Presence. How foolish it is, how terrible, if you have not found your Island of Peace within your own soul! It means that you are living without the discovery of your true home. (Howard Thurman: Meditations of the Heart, pp.18-19)
This morning I read this meditation again and then turned to the next psalm for the day, Psalm 73. Here the psalm-singer is agitated that those who are the rich and powerful, those who threaten, scoff and speak with malice, those whose “tongues range over the earth,” just seem to increase in influence. (I feel that way when I read the morning news.) Instead the psalmist-singer is weary with the burden, discouraged that justice, speaking truth, treating others (particularly the vulnerable) with kindness—all things supposedly aligned with God’s cause—don’t have more influence in the singer’s current events. Yet the singer still feels compelled not to abandon the circle of God’s children, those who are suffering, no matter how tempting wealth, power and influence are. But why doesn’t God act on behalf of the “upright”? Listen in to the lamenting psalm-singer:
1 Truly God is good to the upright,[a]
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant;
I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pain;
their bodies are sound and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not plagued like other people.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them like a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out with fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against heaven,
and their tongues range over the earth.10 Therefore the people turn and praise them,[b]
and find no fault in them.[c]
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Such are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain I have kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all day long I have been plagued,
and am punished every morning.15 If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,”
I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,…
…until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I perceived their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 They are[d] like a dream when one awakes;
on awaking you despise their phantoms.21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was stupid and ignorant;
I was like a brute beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me with honor.[e]
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength[f] of my heart and my portion forever.
27 Indeed, those who are far from you will perish;
you put an end to those who are false to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
to tell of all your works.
Marianne Henderson says
This is so inspirational! Beautiful in thought, music and word! I will have to reread this when I am wondering what is happening in this world! And I have to remember that God Himself is in control!! And I have to hope and pray diligently that He will have a hand in all these
mind blowing happenings that are taking place in this world now. Hope springs eternal and I have to hope that whatever happens in November, will be what God wants for us.
Elaine Dent says
Oh, Marianne, thank you for your comment. I suspect that however things may fall in November our divisions will persist and God will be weeping at human foolishness. Our promised hope is that, no matter what, God’s goodness and rule will prevail in the end. We still trust God’s love for creation is endlessly creative, working around us where it can’t work through us.