“Amid sorrows and suffering”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, April 10, 2022
Psalm 31:9-16 (Forward, p. 71) CEV p. 572
Many of the psalms do not give any indication of their setting, that is, the time, place and occasion that prompted their composition. That means that they are appropriate and adaptable to a wide range of circumstances. That certainly is the case with the portion of Psalm 31 chosen for our reading today.
Our psalmist shares about the two forms that his sorrows and sufferings have taken in his life:
a) The first has to do with his health:
“Have pity, Lord! I am hurting and almost blind. My whole body aches. I have known only sorrow all my life long, and I suffer year after year. I am weak from sin, and my bones are limp” (verses 9-10 CEV);
The NRSV renders it quite differently, though not so specifically:
“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eye is consumed with sorrow, and also my throat and my belly. For my life is wasted with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails me because of affliction, and my bones are consumed”.
Clearly, regardless of how one puts it, he is in nasty and difficult straits. And surely, is this not how we have felt at times!
b) The second, to do with his community:
“My enemies insult me. Neighbours are even worse, and I disgust my friends. People meet me on the street, and they turn and run. I am completely forgotten like someone dead. I am merely a broken dish. I hear the crowds whisper, ‘Everyone is afraid!’ They are plotting and scheming to murder me” (verses 11-13, CEV).
“I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even to my neighbours, a dismay to those of my acquaintance; when they see me in the street they avoid me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am as useless as a broken pot. For I have heard the whispering of the crowd, fear is all around; they put their heads together against me, they plot to take my life” (NRVS).
A reproach, a dismay, totally forgotten and out of mind, as useless as a broken pot: could it get any worse? Yes, it could, for these very people are also plotting against him!
He feels harried and helpless, besieged and battered and alone. He feels absolutely no support will be forthcoming from his community and he feels personally to be without any resources that might help him cope. He is clearly ‘at the end of his rope.’
However, that is not the end of the story, not at least, as far as he is concerned. Even when he feels bereft of any personal or communal help or resources, he knows that there is still something else. Or more accurately, someone else. It is the Lord!
“But as for me, I have trusted in you, O Lord. I have said, ‘You are my God. My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. Make your face to shine upon your servant, and in your loving kindness save me’” (verses 14-16).
Or, as the CEV puts it, “I claim you as my God. My life is in your hands. Smile on me, your servant. Have pity and rescue me”.
What a wonderful testimony! When all seems lost and all hope seems gone, he does not despair, but reaches out to God, reaches out to a God whom He knows and loves and whom He knows to be gracious and merciful and more than ready to help those who turn to Him. And what our psalmist knew for sure is no less true for us: the same God is still there, still available to each of us no matter what our predicament or difficulty might be. Amen.
Forward notes: “I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am as useless as a broken pot” (verse 12).
“A couple years ago, I trained in an anti-racism curriculum designed for youth. One lesson explored the art of different cultures. I was intrigued by Kintsugi, a type of art that originated in Japan. Practitioners take broken pottery and put the pieces back together, using lacquer dusted or mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The parts are whole again. And even though you can still see the broken places, every piece that I have seen mended in this way is beautiful: a broken pot made more beautiful by its brokenness.
“On Palm Sunday, we know that brokenness is to come. On Good Friday, we will see Jesus, broken on the cross, dead, and laid in the tomb. The disciples will be broken by a grief that they imagine is beyond repair. The world itself will seem broken. But mending is to come. In the days of old, and over and over again in our lives, there is always breaking, mending, and the possibility of resurrection that transforms our brokenness into beauty.”
MOVING FORWARD: “What broken places in your life let beauty and healing shine forth?”
A concluding note: yes, we may ourselves feel ‘as useless as a broken pot’, and others may treat us this way as well, but that is not how God sees us. God loves us and sees us as valued and precious in His sight. And yes, sometimes, as our author suggests, He takes the shattered shards and uses them as they are, fashioning them into something wonderful. But then too, like a potter, He sometimes takes us, patiently extracting the grit and other contaminants and expelling the air bubbles and shapes us into something entirely new and resurrected. What we see in ourselves—and what others see—is not at all what God sees. Praised be God!