In the psalm for David I noticed that it was all about the good times. You know before David slept with that woman and killed her husband to be with her. But it also shows that after the Lord punished him, he kept thinking of him as a light through the dark. When he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, only strength comes because God is with him. David was a strong man who leaves a legacy of strength and good behind. God gave everything he could to David to show his approval for him as his servant. I am sure that if all follow David’s path of praise surely goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their life, unless they deceit God.
When I read Day, the character in the story sort of talked like this. He felt God had abandoned him and wondered where he had gone. I am sure that in the Holocaust the questions in psalm 23 were on the mind of everyone on a daily basis. That feeling of complete solitude and not knowing what is to come always around them. It kind of shocks me to think the questions that are said in this psalm because the truth is it is sad. The fact that a God abandoned you in your moment of most dire need and you question yourself over and over where he is, is scary. I can’t imagine myself dealing with these questions in my head or feeling completely and totally abandoned.
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God”.
There are those moments when a person can feel completely abandoned and wonders where God went. I am not very religious but I admit that in the moments when I feel most distressed or worried I do wonder if God is watching over me.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
51:13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.”
Forgiveness is hard at any moment. David sinned and his ultimate goal is forgiveness by God. In this psalm you get a clear picture of how hard forgiveness can be. In the quote above I feel that David wanted to go back to being the golden boy for God. Later God did punish him but I think David was a t peace knowing that he actually tried to be forgiven. I also found the last line of the quote kind of funny because David himself is a sinner and a sinner teaching others what to do could be a bit messed up.
Another holocaust reference is found in this psalm for me. When they say: “For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?”, I remembered this scene in The Pianist when the Jews are forced to dance for the Germans. I am sure they felt the same as those by the rivers of Babylon. Is it a coincidence that all these psalms somehow remind me of the holocaust?
No comments:
Post a Comment