Sunday 29 November 2020

Psalm 80

Background

This is not an easy passage to read, with its warnings of suffering, darkness and the shaking of the heavens. It jars with our natural expectation that Advent will be a time of hope, of light and joy. It represents a kind of literature called apocalyptic, a genre that uses vivid and even violent language to affirm God’s sovereign rule over a world that often seems remote from divine justice and genuine worship. Apocalyptic represents the cry of a suffering people who are impatient for change, desperate for God’s transforming presence. There are extensive passages of apocalyptic in Daniel and Ezekiel in the Old Testament, and in the Book of Revelation in the New. Their focus is on God’s intervention in the world so that it is turned upside down and becomes something new and wonderful. Biblical scholars find it difficult to agree on what precisely is meant by the title ‘Son of Man’, but here it seems to point to the way in which the coming of Jesus Christ is God’s final and decisive engagement with the powers of suffering and evil. Charles Wesley’s great Advent hymn, ‘Lo, he comes with clouds descending’ expresses this perfectly, its final lines emphasising the Christian hope: ‘Come Lord Jesus! Everlasting God, come down!’

The continuing pandemic of Covid-19 means that this year’s Advent is for many a time of suffering, of darkness and the shaking of all that used to seem certain. These are, in a sense, apocalyptic times. We can perhaps identify more easily with those ancient Jewish and Christian people whose desperate hope and impatient longing were expressed in this vivid and dramatic literature. With Advent Sunday we embark on a new Christian year, not as a routine moment in the cycle of the seasons, but as a reminder that God’s light and love will finally triumph.  

To Ponder:

• How has your experience of the Covid-19 outbreak affected your sense of hope?
• How do you express your impatience with the way the world is at present?