Читать книгу The Psalms - Herbert O'Driscoll - Страница 33

Psalm 26

My foot stands on level ground;

in the full assembly I will bless the Lord.

I recall a senior executive once saying to me that, at certain times during worship in her parish church, she would become aware of her professional world and of its dissimilarity from the world in which she was standing. Sometimes she wondered if she could continue to bridge these two worlds. She was sure that she could not function without a community of faith and worship to turn to.

To some extent, I think we meet that person in this psalm. In the mind of the psalmist two worlds seem to be clashing. There is an indication that he is preparing to go to the temple for worship. “I will wash my hands in innocence, O Lord, that I may go in procession round your altar.” Is there a note of wistfulness as he sees himself, “singing aloud … and recounting all [God’s] wonderful deeds”? Perhaps there is a note of longing in the line, “Lord, I love the house in which you dwell.”

This wistfulness and longing may arise from the way that images of the house and presence of God are suddenly juxtaposed with invading images of a brutal world. In the teeth of this world the psalmist is trying to hold on to the things he values. The opening verses have a kind of dogged determination about them, as if by naming certain things he will keep them secure in his life. “I have lived with integrity … your love is before my eyes … I have walked faithfully with you.”

Immediately his thoughts are invaded by “the worthless … the deceitful … the evildoers.” Does he fear that he must take these people into consideration if he is to survive in their kind of world? But he forces these troubling images from his mind, and returns to “the house in which you [Lord] dwell.” He seems to run to the temple for sanctuary.

Once more dark images pursue him. He fears being swept away with “sinners … those who thirst for blood … Whose hands are full of evil plots … full of bribes.” In desperation he again cries out the determined words he voiced at the beginning of the psalm: “I will live with integrity.”

But he realizes that this goal is tremendously difficult in the world where he must function. “Redeem me, O Lord, and have pity on me,” he cries. And again comes a sense of calm, a feeling that there are resources available to him. “In the full assembly I will bless the Lord.” In a heaving world he has found that his “foot stands on level ground.”

When our world presents us with tumultuous cliffs and abysses, may each one of us find such level ground.

Our spiritual life grows through learning to live in the physical world. Try applying your spiritual values to your worldly affairs, and bringing your worldly concerns into your spiritual practice. Ask God to help you reconcile the apparent contradictions.