Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills. I do this a lot. I love the hills here, they remind me of home. We had mountains, but to be able to lift my eyes, to see deeper than just the hills. To see the sun grow lovely and ripe as it sets behind them. To watch the sun rise on the other side and set the world aglow. To see the birds take off in flight, to see the sheer number of them. Lifting my eyes is something I love to do because it encapsulates community far and near.
Today I have been digging in the dirt from my gardens. Underneath is a beautiful diversity of species which help aerate and feed my garden. If this community didn't exist in concert with one another, my garden would not exist. My plants would not thrive, they would most likely wither and die. Because this community exist in unity with one another everything is rich and verdant.
The Psalms were meant to be this way for us. They are a communal thing. Have you ever been to a church where no one is reading the Psalm together. We are so focused on individually accomplishing the Psalm we forget to listen to one another. Or maybe we don't care if we begin and end on time, yet this is what the Psalm was written for. Long ago there were tunes to the Psalms. Picture it this way, if it was a choir and each person decided on a different tempo (beat) in order to sing the piece. It would be a train wreck. No one would be singing the same note at the same time, pitches would clash and never come together, you would be lucky to even understand it.
This holds true with the Psalm. It's a train wreck when we don't treat it like it is a communal thing. Yes, the Psalms hold a lot of raw emotion, but this is why we do them communally. To encapsulate those times of praise and joy, the times of anger and desolation, and the times of death and loss. They ring truer when we listen for each other and stay on the same page. It is not a race to the finish. Sure there will be some who lag just a beat, but they can catch up with us if we are listening for them.
In a world where we have begun not to hear one another what a great example of listening the Psalms can be to us. They keep us honest as a community. They clue us in when things are not right. They teach us that we aren't the most important individual in the room. What matters is if we all say it together and be with people when they are happy, sad, desolated. We are pulled together through these raw emotions as one. We find we are not alone in our feeling, and not alone in going through whatever event is shaping us at this time.
I would challenge us to come together in a Psalm. If you are alone, find someone to say it with, listen to one another. You may find you have learned skills for helping you through the next time you disagree with someone and instead of cutting them off you may find the wonder of being beside someone instead. This is just the lesson we need today.
I lift up my eyes to the hills. I do this a lot. I love the hills here, they remind me of home. We had mountains, but to be able to lift my eyes, to see deeper than just the hills. To see the sun grow lovely and ripe as it sets behind them. To watch the sun rise on the other side and set the world aglow. To see the birds take off in flight, to see the sheer number of them. Lifting my eyes is something I love to do because it encapsulates community far and near.
Today I have been digging in the dirt from my gardens. Underneath is a beautiful diversity of species which help aerate and feed my garden. If this community didn't exist in concert with one another, my garden would not exist. My plants would not thrive, they would most likely wither and die. Because this community exist in unity with one another everything is rich and verdant.
The Psalms were meant to be this way for us. They are a communal thing. Have you ever been to a church where no one is reading the Psalm together. We are so focused on individually accomplishing the Psalm we forget to listen to one another. Or maybe we don't care if we begin and end on time, yet this is what the Psalm was written for. Long ago there were tunes to the Psalms. Picture it this way, if it was a choir and each person decided on a different tempo (beat) in order to sing the piece. It would be a train wreck. No one would be singing the same note at the same time, pitches would clash and never come together, you would be lucky to even understand it.
This holds true with the Psalm. It's a train wreck when we don't treat it like it is a communal thing. Yes, the Psalms hold a lot of raw emotion, but this is why we do them communally. To encapsulate those times of praise and joy, the times of anger and desolation, and the times of death and loss. They ring truer when we listen for each other and stay on the same page. It is not a race to the finish. Sure there will be some who lag just a beat, but they can catch up with us if we are listening for them.
In a world where we have begun not to hear one another what a great example of listening the Psalms can be to us. They keep us honest as a community. They clue us in when things are not right. They teach us that we aren't the most important individual in the room. What matters is if we all say it together and be with people when they are happy, sad, desolated. We are pulled together through these raw emotions as one. We find we are not alone in our feeling, and not alone in going through whatever event is shaping us at this time.
I would challenge us to come together in a Psalm. If you are alone, find someone to say it with, listen to one another. You may find you have learned skills for helping you through the next time you disagree with someone and instead of cutting them off you may find the wonder of being beside someone instead. This is just the lesson we need today.
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