The LORD Has Done Great Things For Us
This past Sunday, a group of us completed a project we started in January: Praying the Psalms. Professor Walter Brueggemann, through his book Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit, was our trusty guide and companion on the journey through the Psalter. I have to admit that I learned a lot about the Psalms by reading Brueggemann’s book and talking through the Psalms with the group.
The Psalms are an important part of our daily cycle of Morning and Evening Prayer and we sing or recite a Psalm every time we gather for worship, but my engagement with them had really focused on whether or not I liked them. There were certain Psalms that spoke to me because of their beautiful poetry or soothing images, and those are the ones I liked. Other Psalms were too long, too dreary, too violent, or too depressing, and those are the ones I tended to read as quickly as possible to get to the rest of the lessons.
This Sunday, our readings include one of my all-time favorites: Psalm 126. If you don’t know it off the top of your head, you can read it here. This is an absolutely beautiful poem, one that places hope and melancholy side by side, and I think that is what has drawn me back to this Psalm over and over through the years: The light of hope, even in the middle of the dark night of sadness and uncertainty.
Hope is an indelible part of the human spirit. Even during our most desperate times, we hold fast to whatever hope we can find. Some people stay strong in the middle of great personal obstacles. Others show resilience in the aftermath of tragedy. People rebuild when their lives fall apart. We show to ourselves and to the world, in a thousand ways large and small every day, that we are stronger than we know and more prepared for the hard times than we imagined.
Wherever you are, whatever you are facing, hold on to hope. I know that it is not always easy, and Psalm 126 makes this point so beautifully as well:
Those who sowed with tears*
will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed,*
will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.
There are many fields in our lives that have been watered with tears only to produce a great harvest in the end. That is the hope that we all hold onto, the hope that the joys of our past will be just a glimpse of the joy that lies before us. The LORD has done great things for us, and we are glad indeed.
The Rev. Dr. Perry M. Pauley
Associate Rector, Christ Church of the Ascension
Paradise Valley, Arizona
