Truly a word for each and everyone of us (unless of course you ARE perfect!) Life is what happens between the peace of total dependence and the peace of total acceptance. Life Happens by Skip Moen, D. Phil. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. Psalm 57:1 ESV (57:2 in Hebrew text) Destruction – Now, if I were rabbinic, I might say, “Don’t read this word as hayyah, but rather as hayyah.” Did you notice the tiny little change? The first letter moved from a Hey to a Chet. I simply filled in that little space between the top and the side of the letter. And now the verse would read, “I will take refuge till the storms of living pass by.” Man is born for the dust, and his life is like sparks from a fire, soon extinguished in the night air. If David thought of the similar vocalization when he penned this line, perhaps he realized that we don’t just need shelter from the temporary calamities of life; we need shelter from life itself – life filled with “temporary” calamities. Our English translation adds “storms of” suggesting that the emphasis is on temporary transitions. But the Hebrew text has no such word. It simply says ya-avor havot (until calamities pass by). Or, if you care to be imaginatively rabbinic, until life itself passes by. It is the tendency of human existence to view God’s shadow as an occasional necessity. When trouble disturbs our mythological belief in personal control, we cry out to God to set things straight, by which we mean, return to us the control we have lost. But if we realize the truth of our existence, as the sparks fly upward, we realize that we never had control, ever! We are in constant need of His shadow of protection, even when we are not in trouble, because life itself is hayyah. Hayyah hayyot is a more accurate description of our real condition – living destruction. The psalmist offers additional insight into the word hayyah by suggesting that these calamities of living are the result of moral failure. According to Psalm 37:12-13, God reigns supreme over all such moral collapse even though we experience the inevitable disasters of our disobedience. Sin is not simply an act of rebellion. It is a vehicle for destruction. The consequences are built-in to the act itself and inescapable even though guilt may be removed through atonement. As long as we live, we will need the shadow of His wings because we live calamitously. Life is what happens between the peace of total dependence and the peace of total acceptance. What have you learned along your calamitous journey? Have you learned about consequences, about control (or lack thereof), about atonement, about transience? Are you traveling from peace to peace or from place to place? Do you seek stopgaps or are you filling the gap between hayyah and hayyah?
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 12:37:42 +0000
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