Thursday 11 August 2022

Psalm 27

 Background

 It’s like this. You may have heard of the James Webb Space Telescope. If not, let’s simply say it can ‘see’ further than any other telescope we have ever had. Using it we can learn more about the origins of the universe than ever before from a scientific point of view. That fills me with awe and wonder.

 In the days of Micah they could see the stars, but other things were more immediate, handed down by memory, in conversation and storytelling from generation to generation. There is a Jewish song known as Dayeinu. The word, roughly translated, means ‘it would have been enough’. The word forms a chorus, a response. The song recollects the Exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea, people being led through the desert, receiving the Ten Commandments – it goes on. After each recollection the song asserts that if this was all that God had done ‘it would have been enough’. The people are grateful for all that has gone before.

And now, we in our own time, consider all that God has done, what creation stretches out before in front of us. We, too, count our blessings. Knowledge stretches our capacity to be amazed. Might we too, in the light of all of this, sing 'Dayeinu'?

But a question remains. In consequence, what does God want from us in return? For the people of Micah’s day thoughts turn to burnt-offerings, year-old calves, thousands of rams, rivers of oil, even a first-born child.

None of these are what God seeks. Instead God asks them "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." (v. 8)

And today is no different. We respond to this same calling and this profound, but seemingly simple, requirement. And can we? Will we?

To Ponder:

•  How can we be kind in an unkind world?
• How can we be just as individuals, and as nations?