By Gill Dascombe, Past Vice-President of the Methodist Conference
Reading: Psalm 94 v. 19
‘When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.’
Notes:
Psalm 94 seems an odd place to find a text about joy. The first few verses are full of anger and call down God’s vengeance upon a wicked world, where ‘the proud pour out their arrogant words, and all the evildoers boast’ whilst the vulnerable, the widow, the stranger and the orphan suffer death at their hands.
‘How long’, demands the psalmist, how long shall the wicked exult?’ (v.3)
We can well understand how the psalmist felt. We too can feel angry and powerless; the plights of the war-ravaged, the refugee, the hungry and the desperate are only too evident in today’s broken world.
So where is joy to be found?
About half-way through the psalm the mood changes from one of outrage to one of praise.
The psalmist, it seems has resolved to stand up to the injustice, and in so-doing has found himself held in the steadfast love of God. It has given him strength to speak (v17), it has upheld him times of risk (v18). And most of all, into his deepest being it has planted joy.
As for us, we are reminded that it is not enough for us to simply be angry and to do nothing. Like the psalmist, as the people of God we are called to oppose anything that destroys, abuses, deprives, and to cultivate instead that which brings life and flourishing.
And when we fall, God’s steadfast love will raise us up. And when we are silent, it will give us the words, and when the cares of our hearts are too many, it will cheer our souls.
Prayer:
Spirit of the living God, in communion with you and with the cries of those who suffer injustice, work in and through us new deeds of discerning wisdom and true judgement, that we may know among us the fulfilment of your promises, even the first fruits of your reign of joy. Amen
Jim Cotter(1991) (adapted), By Stony Paths