Grieve, Beg, Love, Worry, Beg again, Thank, Praise

AM Psalm 102 • PM Psalm 107:1-32
Jer. 31:27-34 • Eph. 5:1-20 • Matt. 9:9-17

In her Morning Reflection of May 12, Jane Blunschi discussed one of the most important questions for Christians (which fortunately has many answers), “How should I pray?” I was never much of a pray-er myself, but when the coronavirus first assaulted the world, my wife and I started praying together, sometimes with the help of the psalms followed by prayers for our children and for friends who were suffering. The psalms for today, Psalm 102 and a portion of 107, offer special opportunities for prayer.

Psalm 102 is mostly a cry of grief. It expands from the psalmist’s private grief, expressed in beautiful images and metaphors, to grief and prayers for the people of Israel; and further yet, it asks God to answer the prayers of all people in trouble. From there, the psalmist assumes that the Lord has answered those prayers. But near the end, the psalmist cries out in grief again and begs again for mercy. At the end of the psalm, the psalmist is reconciled to the fact of his or her individual death and takes satisfaction in the everlasting goodness of the Lord. The reading from Psalm 107 sounds like praise and thanksgiving to the Lord for deliverance from the sorrows of Psalm 102: “Praise the Lord, O give him thanks, for his mercy endures forever!”

Today is the Feast of the Martyrs of Uganda, 19th century converts to Christianity who were victims of King Mwanga, who, according to our Episcopal Great Cloud of Witnesses, “expelled missionaries and began systematically terrorizing the native Christians. Many were flogged and mutilated. In 1884 three youths were burned to death for their faith. They were said to have approached martyrdom singing the favorite Swahili hymn, ‘Daily, daily sing the praises.’”

Along with the hymn, they could well have been encouraging one another with Swahili translations of Psalms 107 and 102. For our own needs, less than theirs were probably, we might condense and paraphrase the two readings into a prayer something like this:

Hear my prayer O Lord. Let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress.
My days pass away like smoke [and I pray for friends who have died or are dying.]
Our days are like an evening shadow. We wither away like grass.
But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever. Your name endures for all generations.
You will arise and have pity on [Ukraine and the migrants and homeless of the earth]
And all the tyrants of the earth will fear your glory,
for you will hear the prayer of the poor and the wretched
so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord that he looked down from his holy height
and heard the groans of the prisoners and set free those who were doomed.
Though you have broken my strength in mid-course and shortened my days,
O my God take me not hence in the midst of my days,
you whose years endure throughout all generations.
And I will give thanks to the Lord, for his mercy endures forever and I will glory in his praise.

Written by John DuVal

John dedicates this Morning Reflection to the memory of his friends Matt Henriksen and Martin Redfern.