On: The People of God & Scripture—As Discovered in Psalm 22
“Jesus Loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Who has not sung this child’s hymn of assurance? Who has not been comforted by its power as an adult. I have.
This is the quintessential Protestant affirmation. The Bible says it and that settles it!
It is settled only until I look underneath the text and discover the mysteries that is its magic over generations. The Bible’s power derives from its Divine author… Yes? Yes! Absolutely, but not in a way usually imagined.
The Bible did not fall out of heaven on tablets of gold to function as our resource app for all of life’s challenges and purposes. Many in Christ wish it were so and speak as if it is so. What they do not realize is that, in treating the Bible as a dictation from an Eternal CEO and the writers as court room stenographers the Bible’s real power is lost—Its relation to worship and the mysteries that emerge when God re-gathers with us!
The Bible is the memory of the people of God about God’s presence in and with us. It is a library of incredibly creative and purposeful writers who are remembering original God shaped events and interpreting and intuiting them; reshaping them for contemporary audiences that need The Story told and retold. The Bible emerges from a worshiping community in relation to the very God whose Spirit breaths in the:
Originating events, and;
Events as now remembered by the people of God, and;
Gathering and worshiping moments when a new people of God re-experience this same God by ‘remembering’ again.
Take Psalms 22 for example.
The Psalms are the hymns and prayers of Israel as she journeys with God precisely because they emerge from real people and events. The Psalms illicit in us love, passion, questions, doubt, hatred, fear because these are Israel’s experiences; It’s loves, passions, questions, doubts, hatreds and fears. And weaving through it all is both the Spirit of God and Israel who in new situations, like the exile in Babylon, rely on David and Solomon and the priests written memory of God in times past as God present to them in this new and difficult place.
In Psalms 22 we encounter David surrounded, ridiculed, cut off and feeling abandoned by both the people and God. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22: 1a) Perhaps with Saul or at Gath or with the rebellion of his son Absalom. In this Psalm of David, as with so many, we experience the lament followed by remembrances of God with Israel in the past followed by hope.
And that is before we, who in Jesus Church discover the very words of comfort and even prophecy that shape the story of Jesus passion—as Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22: 1a)
Imagine the comfort this very Psalm was to the Son as he looked around and at the dogs circling him, the ridicule, his thirst and sees God’s hand anew and inside his own chaos from David’s experience centuries before. Imagine the Church under siege from Roman persecution as they re-experience this Psalm in liturgy and awaken to the memory of Story details like casting lots for Jesus clothing.
It is these mysteries:
The original story, and;
The Story as remembered in Israel, and;
The Story as relived in the Church, and;
The Story as relived in worship by us
…that give this Book it’s power. It is why I can and do still sing:
"Jesus loves me,
this is Know,
for the Bible tells me so."
What we as Protestants forget all too easily is the simple reality that our Book was born of our mother, the ancient Church of Christ.
Let us hear anew one of the Church’s sons who served well in the twentieth century: Thomas Merton.
“For the Psalms to fulfill the function Christian tradition has always demanded of them, which is to dispose the souls of men for union with God, they must not only ‘raise the minds and hearts of men to God’ but they must inspire us to give ourselves entirely to God. Finally, most important of all, this gift of ourselves must be made in Christ and with Christ…
All this is the work of the Spirit in our souls, uniting us to God in the Mystery of Christ."
From "Bread in the Wilderness", by Thomas Merton, pages #43,91
In these writings Merton connects us to the deepest power of the Word. God lives in the original event, the event as remembered and now as relived in worship; especially in the Eucharist. The mystery of the Word is Jesus, the Living Word fleshed out. We have the Roman Catholic tradition to thank for this. Them and the Spirit of the Living God.
The more one reads the Psalms the more one sees Christ’s life breathed/lived in them. Some Psalms are held by the Church as explicit Messianic references such as Psalm 22. They are almost literal expressions of Jesus (as well as David’s) passion, faith, experience and love. Other Psalms only picture Christ as a work of art captures the meaning underneath and beyond the canvas itself. As you live with the Psalms you will come to see ever more clearly, Jesus.
Reflections on “The Mystery inside Holy Scripture”
Q: Study Psalm 22. Which of these statements find a source in this Psalm at least in spirit?
We know that Jesus, during his passion and crucifixion quoted from Psalms 22. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1a)
Q: What comfort/strength may Psalm 22:1-21 have given Jesus?
Q: What comfort/strength may Psalm 22:22-31 have given Jesus?
Once again, consider the multi-layered mystery in the formation of Holy Scripture from and for worship.
Q: Is this a new thought to you?
Q: How will it change your view of Scripture and its place in worship? …in celebration of the Holy Communion? …in our lives?
Give thanks to God for The Word and for the People of God who formed it.
From:7 Faces of Jesus
"7 Faces of Jesus: As Seen in the North American Church" (Devotional Journeys around the Liturgical Calendr-Ordinary Time, Book 1), Week 5: Monday, by Terry Mattson
https://www.amazon.com/Faces-Jesus-American-Devotional-Holy-Love/dp/1520513453/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?
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