Advent, despite the depredations of the secular world, is
not Christmas. Why not, this time
around, I thought, attend to the Psalms in the Lectionary for Advent. But as it turns out, only for the 1st
Sunday in Advent do we actually have a Psalm.
For the other three Sundays it is Canticles – The Benedictus, a Canticle
from Isaiah, and on Advent IV the Magnificat.
For Advent I then it is Psalm 25, the first half of it. Unto
thee, O Lord, will I lift up my soul… That’s from the Coverdale version,
1535. It is the version used in Anglican
prayer books, one way and another, down to the present day.
My God, I have put my trust in thee; O let
me not be confounded,
Neither let mine
enemies triumph over me…
The Psalmist turns to prayer. His or her prayer is heartfelt and personal
from the outset. It is not any formal
saying of prayers, although that, as we know, has its important place. Here however the Psalmist is not hiding at
all from God, or from herself. There is
no one else present. She says, or sings,
I lift up my soul… Her life, in the most hidden depths she
knows, she is offering back to God. And
she is deeply aware of what she thinks are its defects. God may not be seeing the defects she sees…
but this is her prayer, and she means every word. She wishes she had better words.
O let me not be
confounded… The Hebrew means
blushing, ashamed, even disqualified.
Her deepest desire here is to be confident and honest before God. Neither
let mine enemies triumph over me…
When we read the Psalms, or hear them in church, “my enemy” is a
frequent presence, but “my enemy” may not at all be some attack from
elsewhere. “The enemy” may be within,
personal, obstinate, lifelong – an addiction perhaps, an intractable memory,
some perceived inadequacy, some failure...
We read the Psalms as what they are, poetry, and charged with meaning we
never suspected. These prayers in all
their red-bloodedness give us a voice. So
we linger over them, and love them. The
Psalmist is speaking for us and often movingly.
Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy
paths.
In her stillness and attention
in prayer she is reminded that life and the world are not primarily about
her. God’s way is primary, not mine;
God’s will, not mine; God’s word, not mine.
Hebrew loves to say the same thing twice with different words – in this
case, four times: Shew me… teach me… lead me… learn me… The third one is a word derived from the noun
meaning a goad, a prod, even a rod of correction. It is as though we learn, often as not, if we
are willing and listening, which often we are not -- by the adverse things that
happen, the setbacks, the calamities.
The Psalmist in her prayer submits to leading, or prodding, so long as
it is along the path of truth, love and goodness. And so her prayer goes on… Psalm 25. You may be able to read it yourself in the
First Week of Advent.
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