Читать книгу My Strength and My Song - Simon Peter Iredale - Страница 8

Psalm 36

The French writer and philosopher Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) wrote a little play about hell called in French Huis Clos, or No Exit. The play is set in a faded and dingy French living room with dusty, overstuffed furniture. The characters who are gradually introduced into this gloomy environment are quite diverse; but, as the play continues, we come to realize that each, in different ways, has history with the others. Essentially, no one can even dream of peace or happiness while the other is there. Sartre’s main point is that “hell is other people” rather than the fiery torments that filled, especially, the Medieval Christian imagination. The atmosphere of this play is stifling and claustrophobic, as it is intended to be. It is a very small pool with some very nasty fish in it. From a theological point of view, it is a picture of a world without God.

The first four verses of this week’s psalm anticipate Sartre’s vision by a great many centuries. Here, also, we are aware of the stultifying condition of sin, for sinfulness is not just a matter of sinful thoughts and acts but a way of being, the total human experience warped away from the purpose of our Creator. As the psalmist portrays so graphically, sinfulness permeates every aspect of this person’s life. It “speaks” in the deepest recesses of his heart (verse 1). His mind is made restless by myriad selfish plans, all of which are designed to profit from another’s disadvantage (verse 4). Evil is so self-obsessed, so inward looking, imagining that as long as it is not revealed to the cold light of day, then it is all right (verse 2).

These four verses certainly present a dark place to start a psalm, but then something wonderful and dramatic happens. It is as if the windows and doors to this fetid, squalid place are suddenly thrown open by an irresistible force. Our imagination is lifted up to the heavens, to the clouds. It is as if an infinite, sunlit space is revealed to us in a kind of epiphany. This is God’s abundant life, not the dreary mere existence of sin. Here we have the majestic mountains of divine righteousness and judgments as profound as the deepest oceans. The lie that Satan tells humankind is that he is as powerful as God, as much deserving of honor. The reality is that his “kingdom” is sin’s cramped room that has “no exit,” and his “riches” are worthless rubbish with just the surface appearance of value. But God’s kingdom is the shining universe itself and all creation within it, and our value is beyond measure.

You probably wouldn’t be reading this if you were still living in that cramped and stuffy room. In Christ, you have been brought out onto the mountaintop and can see with clear eyes the glory of God. Christ has “raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 2:6). Verses 7-9 of Psalm 36 take us more into the characteristics of this new life, this ultimate release from the things that used to constrain us. God’s kingdom is a place of nurture and protection (verse 7) and although in material things we may very well be at a disadvantage, we are incomparably rich in the things of God. We “drink from the river of thy delights” (verse 8). It is an image of superabundance, but it is not static and unchanging. There is development and constant progress. One of my favorite verses in any of the psalms is verse 9: “For with thee is the fountain of life; / in thy light do we see light.” Full of Christ’s light though we may be, there is still more to see—and still more to see after that, eternally.

The cramped room seems a long way away now, but we are still in this mortal life; so we must, at some point, return from the mountain of transfiguration. After the disciples had witnessed the glory of Jesus on the mountaintop, they trudged down into the world of humanity again and had to face in the months to come persecution, hardship, and eventually, the death of their beloved Master. I wonder sometimes if that was part of the point of this glimpse into heaven that they received: something to give them strength when the whole world appeared to turn against them.

What a psalm! What a vision of the mind-boggling glory of God! What an inspiration to carry us into the challenges and trials of our everyday walk with God.

For Reflection

Have you been on the mountaintop with God?

Prayer

Mighty Lord, burst open my doors and windows, banish my darkness, release me from selfishness and sin. Let your light shine! Amen.