In two days, I will lead our church in a "Good" Friday service. It's the day that we remember the death of Jesus. We remember the suffering of Jesus. We remember the love that led Jesus to die that death--and the Father to allow that death. It's a dark day. The cloth on the cross is black. The sanctuary is normally dark--or almost dark. "Good" is an interesting adjective for the day. It's the Friday of death that precedes the Sunday of resurrection.
For the first time in my life, I feel like I am living that Friday--three funerals in 10 days, with the first being my father, the second a sweet woman from the church, and the third a close friend and ministry partner who died at 51 years old, not to mention my "second mama" losing her brother three weeks ago, my cousin losing her husband of 46 years in February, and a best friend whose father is dying of cancer.
Last week, in an email to a friend, I quoted Theoden, from "Lord of the Rings," who felt despair deep in Helm's Deep and moaned painfully, "So much death!" Then I remembered Aragorn, who encouraged Theoden, "Ride out with me." We all need Aragorns in times like this--friends to encourage us to keep putting one foot in front of another!
I also happen to be teaching Psalms right now, and the subject of the past three weeks has been the lament psalms. These psalms contain statements like these (all from The Voice):
- My soul is drowning in darkness. How long can You, the Eternal, let things go on like this? (Ps. 6:3)
- How long must I agonize, grieving Your absence in my heart every day? How long will You let my enemies win? (Ps. 13:2)
- My God, my God, why have You turned Your back on me? Your ears are deaf to my groans. O my God, I cry all day and You are silent; my tears in the night bring no relief. (Ps. 22:1-2)
- Do not allow my enemies to boast over me. Do not allow them to gloat over me, “Aha, we have won! We got what we wanted!” Do not allow them to brag, “We chewed him up and spit him out.” (Ps. 35:24-25)
- The waters have risen to my neck; I am going down! My feet are swallowed in this murky bog; I am sinking—there is no sturdy ground. I am in the deep; the floods are crashing in! I am weary of howling; my throat is scratched dry. (Ps. 69:1-3)
And, yet, if you read these psalms in their entirety, you will find in them also statements of faith in God--statements of trust that God has heard in the past and will hear in the future. These psalms talk of God as "My Lord" and "My God," speaking of a relationship between psalmist and God. There is hope, even in deep darkness. However, there is one exception. Psalm 88 offers no word of hope, no word of trust, no word of faithfulness. The psalmist is forsaken and forgotten, "in the lowest pits of the earth, in the darkest canyons of the ocean" (v. 6).
This brings me back to Friday. There is no suggestion in the gospel texts that the friends and followers of Jesus were hoping for a miracle. They had watched Jesus die--and he was dead! Friday, and Psalm 88, should remind us that there are times when we feel hopeless. There are times when the darkness overwhelms us and we see no glimmer of light. Death does this to us. And Friday is a day to think of death. Yes, we know that Sunday is coming, but I do not think that the disciples on Saturday were looking forward to Sunday. So, I suggest that on "Good" Friday, we consider the darkness of that night, and the darkness of some of our own days.
I do have one word of hope here, however. I am so glad that Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. Jesus understood grief. He understood Friday. I have listened to a song by the artist Eli several times in the past few weeks. The song is entitled, "God Weeps, Too." It give me comfort and hope. It includes this line, "This is for the widow, who now must sleep alone, when the memory of a kiss will have to do. Every night when she lay down, you can almost hear, when God weeps, too." (You can hear the song here.) I believe that God wept on Friday. I think I will, too, as I long for Sunday!
I have been intrigued for quite some time with how we (Christians, atheists, liberals, conservatives, etc.) tend to misuse scripture for our own purposes. We so seldom see that our culture, history, family, theology, church, etc., affect how we read scripture. I have tentatively entitled my series of thoughts, "The Most Misused Texts in the Bible" (I know, not very original). My first foray into the topic was a look at Jer. 29:11. (See my earlier blog.) We often read Jer. 29:11 as a promise that God has a specific, detailed, individualized plan for each of our lives (One our doctoral students recently called this concept, "The White Board God"). Maybe God has that plan, maybe God doesn't, but Jer. 29:11 is about something else. Let me move on.
Along the same lines, I am intrigued by our interpretations of Psalm 8:4. I first thought about this a few years ago when I realized that three current contemporary worship songs included the line "Who am I?," followed by some allusion to Psalm 8:4, something like "Who am I that God is mindful of me?" (from Israel Houghton and Michael Gungor, "Friend of God," ©2003 Integrity's Praise! Music and Vertical Worship Songs). Now, I am not trying to insult these songs (the others were by Mark Hall (Who Am I?") and Mary MacLean ("Creator King," sung by Kathryn Scott), not lightweights in Christian music). I actually like the songs, songwriters, and singers. In fact, "Creator King" is a great statement about the Creator God. These songs simply reflect how we read the Bible. We read the Bible through the eyes of individuals, while the Bible was typically written from community eyes. But that should be a different blog. Here are my thoughts on Ps. 8:4.
Psalm 8 is a hymn of praise to the majestic creator of heavens and earth. The psalmist marvels at the wonders of creation. In the face of the heavens and earth, the moon and stars, the psalmist asks why has God placed humanity in the important place in creation--in God's image, a "little lower than the heavenly beings" (Ps. 8:5). The ESV translates Ps. 8:4, "What is man that you are mindful of him?," which is similar to King James and NASB. NIV does better with "What is mankind that you are mindful of them?" In his new commentary on Psalms, Bruce Waltke translates the verse, "What is a mere mortal that you are mindful of him?" This is a nice translation, that seems to me to address the point of the verse. A bit freer translation can be found in The Voice, which reads: "I can’t help but wonder why You care about mortals—sons and daughters of men—specks of dust floating about the cosmos." While some literal purists might scoff at the freedoms taken in the translation, particularly the italicized text that was added for clarity of meaning, I think that The Voice gets exactly to the point of the verse.
You see, when we stare out at the skies at night, when we consider the majesty of the cosmos, when we reflect upon our seeming insignificance in the universe, we should exclaim, "WOW! And God loves us!" This psalm is about God, not about humans. It is about the great majesty of God, and also the amazing choice of God to place humans at the top of the food chain. When we consider the creator God, we should think not of our privilege, but of God's choice--God's sovereignty--God's love. And then, we will conclude with the psalmist, "O Eternal, our Lord, Your majestic name is heard throughout the earth" (The Voice).
