Psalm 89:1-29

Read

Psalm 89:1-29


¹ Your love, O LORD, for ever will I sing; *
from age to age my mouth will proclaim your faithfulness.
² For I am persuaded that your love is established for ever; *
you have set your faithfulness firmly in the heavens.
³ "I have made a covenant with my chosen one; *
I have sworn an oath to David my servant:
⁴ 'I will establish your line for ever, *
and preserve your throne for all generations.'"
⁵ The heavens bear witness to your wonders, O LORD, *
and to your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones;
⁶ For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? *
who is like the LORD among the gods?
⁷ God is much to be feared in the council of the holy ones, *
great and terrible to all those round about him.
⁸ Who is like you, LORD God of hosts? *
O mighty LORD, your faithfulness is all around you.
⁹ You rule the raging of the sea *
and still the surging of its waves.
¹⁰ You have crushed Rahab of the deep with a deadly wound; *
you have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
¹¹ Yours are the heavens; the earth also is yours; *
you laid the foundations of the world and all that is in it.
¹² You have made the north and the south; *
Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your Name.
¹³ You have a mighty arm; *
strong is your hand and high is your right hand.
¹⁴ Righteousness and justice are the foundations of your throne; *
love and truth go before your face.
¹⁵ Happy are the people who know the festal shout! *
they walk, O LORD, in the light of your presence.
¹⁶ They rejoice daily in your Name; *
they are jubilant in your righteousness.
¹⁷ For you are the glory of their strength, *
and by your favor our might is exalted.
¹⁸ Truly, the LORD is our ruler; *
The Holy One of Israel is our King.

Think :

You rule the raging of the sea, and still the surging of its waves.  I wish that I felt like God was ruling the raging sea of my emotions these days.  I wish that you were stilling the surging of emotions that threaten to over take me as I sit in the still quietness tonight, half way through General Ordination Exams I am sitting here on one hand certain of my call to ministry and on the other hand recognizing that I am in limbo and am not yet in a position to fulfill my total call.  In seminary I have learned so much about  the already and not yet, and the balance between what is and what will be, but learning about it and accepting it as the eschatological reality of judgement and the return of Christ didn't do much to prepare me for the limbo of my current life, where I am already done with my seminary courses but not yet a graduate.  Where I am ordained a deacon and not yet ready to be a priest.  Where it feels like everything around me has changed for the better, that I have listened to my call to be ordained, been through discernment, seminary, gotten married to the man that I love who I give credit to the Holy Spirit and God for bringing us together fortuitously, begun our life together outside of seminary but professionally I have had to go back to where I was 5 years ago, teaching at the community college because the storm of bills and debt will soon start swirling around me.  I wish that I shared the certainty of the Psalmist that all will be well that YHWH will calm the storm and all will be well.  Because tonight, right now I am far from certain.

Prayer:

Father God, I doubt that anything has really changed in my circumstances.  Help me to recognize that although my poverty and not my will consent to this return to my "pre-seminary" employ it is but a temporary roaring of the storm and You will calm my nerves, my anxieties and my doubts in the time of transition which lays ahead. I ask this of you and the son an the holy spirit Amen.

Contemplation:

ten minutes before going to bed for the night- emptying my mind of the desires and anxieties which weigh heavy on my heart but trusting in God that he will calm my psychic storm.