In our current lectionary study, we will explore Jeremiah the Prophet as a context for reading the psalms ... and the psalm as a response to Jeremiah's writings ... We will identify themes that connect these biblical writings and consider a prayerful response that emerges from our study.
Lamentations 1:1-6 (NRSV) as the CONTEXT for reading the Psalms
How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies. Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the nations, and finds no resting-place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter. Her foes have become the masters, her enemies prosper, because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe. From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.
The book of Lamentations is attributed, by tradition, to the Prophet Jeremiah. There are five chapters, or “poems” in Lamentations. They are written with the rhythm of a funeral dirge and with the vivid imagery that Jeremiah loves to express himself with. Even in English we can feel this rhythm of death and memories in the words that are so hauntingly tragic for the aging prophet Jeremiah. All those years he prophesied and was ridiculed, mocked, persecuted, and imprisoned … yet he is not rejoicing that he was right and others were wrong. He does not condemn them and kick them while they are down. He simply tells the truth as he sees it: the Lord has made you suffer because of your transgressions. The Babylonians were the destroyers but the Israelites had turned from God and had not followed in the ways of the Lord. The people are now experiencing all Jeremiah has spoken of and written about. He is not alone in his suffering! This week we are in the depths of their despair which gives rise to some very difficult writings.
The people who managed to stay in Jerusalem in the aftermath of Babylonian destruction of city and temple in 586 BCE were suffering in ways that those of us in the United States cannot imagine. Lamentations is fine poetic literature written by one who is witnessing the devastation and surviving to tell the story. There were many who did not. Today we share our stories in order to address our “post-traumatic stress syndrome.” Perhaps Jeremiah wrote to address the trauma of the Israelite community, all of them survivors of great horrors. Lamentations was included in the liturgy of the worshiping community. Their suffering was remembered as a way of sharing pain with a God who had not abandoned their world. Together they expressed newly rediscovered faith in a faithful God in order to heal deep wounds. They did so without the temple, their center of worship. As we read their story we wonder, “Where was God in the midst of their suffering?”
GOING DEEPER through the reading of Psalm 137 (New Revised Standard Version)
By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said,
‘Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!’ O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!
Psalm 137 is called an imprecatory psalm. To imprecate means to invoke evil upon, or curse. Imprecatory psalms contain curses or prayers for the punishment of the psalmist's enemies. I find it very difficult to hear the last verse of Psalm 137: “Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!” Oh …
The words are a shock to my delicate belief system and my Christian ethics! Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!” It is a lot easier to love enemies that are not abusing you, killing your family and friends, and destroying your home and community. I avoided the entire book of Psalms for years because of Psalm 137. Yet when we read the psalms as a whole, imprecation is a minor theme. But when I read it, that one line hit me somewhere deep and I was uncomfortable. I don’t like uncomfortable. Today I wonder, “Am I better than the psalmist simply because I don’t rejoice that babies die in wars that we fight?” Around here, we simply consider those babies “collateral damage.”
PONDERING Life in the Connections between Lamentations 1:1-6 and Psalm 137
See how the words of Psalm 137 respond to the situation of Jeremiah’s community … Read the Jeremiah passage again and then read the psalm. The context of the psalm is very clear … By the Rivers of Babylon … as we put this psalm in context, what is happening to the Israelites? What is the nature of their suffering? Perhaps the Babylonians are dashing the Israelite babies against the rocks … would that make a difference? If you were in that situation, what would you be feeling? Can you imagine yourself praying this prayer if you were in their situation? Can you imagine yourself praying this prayer on behalf of a people who were being abused and destroyed?
Here is another thought … hyperbole is a figure of speech which is often used in Hebrew poetry. Hyperbole is a purposeful exaggeration or excessive language. When a poet uses hyperbole, no one would be expected to take these expressions literally. Why do we exaggerate? We exaggerate to make a point. Can you hear the psalmist crying out in his pain, the pain of his community … can he be heard? Are you listening? Have you ever exaggerated to make a point?
So what are your thoughts about this psalm? Are there any circumstances that you could envision yourself praying it?
PRAYING
In 2005 I was living on the outskirts of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Perhaps the most traumatic image for me was the National Guardsmen standing in my community, at gas stations and on street corners with their automatic weapons. I felt “shell-shocked” and I didn’t even experience the depths of personal loss that most people did. I can’t begin to imagine what I would have felt if those men holding weapons had come into my community not to help with recovery but to kill and hurt and destroy … I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like every day for the mothers in this world who are watching their children grow up in situations of violence in their land. Perhaps I hope that I would be above using a psalm such as this one to pray against “the other side” but I’m not sure.
Where is God in the midst of our suffering? For me, God was right in the middle of our community! There was just something about “being present” that I learned during this experience. For many months I could only pray in the silence for the suffering was so profound. I could only sit numbly until the feelings began to surface. Sometimes I sat with others and sometimes, I sat in solitude. Turning to God in times like these is one sure way to spiritual survival.
Silence … Sitting with someone who is experiencing profound suffering, silence can be the most compassionate response. The source of the suffering doesn’t matter and it doesn’t even matter if we think they “deserved” it. Centering Prayer is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God's presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship. The discipline of Centering Prayer teaches us how to be present to ourselves in our own suffering and to others in their suffering. We learn that we do not have to speak to communicate God’s love and care.
Here is a way to experience Centering Prayer:
1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.
3. When distracted by thoughts, body sensations, feelings, images, and reflections, return gently to your sacred word.
4. At the end of a 20-30 minute prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
Here is a cool way to pray with Music ... By the Rivers of Babylon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm1g8FFRArc
The Lyrics follow ... they don't quite capture the entirety of emotions in the Psalm ...
By the rivers of Babylon Where we sat down
There we wept When we remembered Zion
For the wicked Carried us away captivity
Requiring from us a song
How can we sing a song of joy in a strange land
So let the Words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable in Thy sight here tonight
By the rivers of Babylon Where we sat down
There we wept When we remembered Zion
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