May 14thPsalm 108
The Jerusalem Blade
In Pilgrim's Progress, Mr. Great-Heart has a weapon he calls the 'Jerusalem Blade.' It is the 'sword of scripture.' Great-Heart exclaims that it is important for every Christian to have a blade like this one and a hand to exercise it and use it. It has edges that are never dull and it can cut flesh, bone, soul, and spirit (Heb. 4:12). It has the ability to cut through every remarkable lie and deception the enemies of the faith can throw at a traveler. Your Blade is authoritative, accurate, and sufficient. You can believe in it for it has the power to allow you to know what God’s mind is. [1]
Our psalmist knows the power of scripture. She takes lines from two earlier psalms [2] and applies them to her own, new context.
Our psalm begins with praise followed by petition and ends with a word of trust. Our psalmist knows that we - the people of God - never live beyond trouble and the need for God's help.
The key verses lie in the middle of this psalm:
Soar high in the skies, O God!
Cover the whole earth with your glory!
And for the sake of the one you love so much,
reach down and help me—answer me! (vs. 5-6)
As the long deep frosts of December work their way out of the ground, an epidemic of potholes erupts. Driving around Saskatoon I get to observe potholes quite closely. Here’s how a pothole starts:
Water seeks out a low point in the roadway. It collects there and softens the surface. Just the way that the temptation to cut moral corners, to try something shady, will find the low point in one’s ethical principles.
Enter an external pressure. For the pothole, it’s a tire. It squishes down into the puddle, and squirts disturbed water outwards.
Now, you might expect that because the pothole started as a low point, it would fill up with sediment, the way lakes do. But lakes don’t get pounded repeatedly by external forces.
When a tire drives water out, the water carries with it some sediment from the bottom. The water will drain back into the depression. But the mud, silt, and gravel won’t. Like a wave rushing up a beach, during the moment when the water stops before it turns around, some of the debris settles out.
So every time a tire splashes muddy water out of the pothole, it digs the hole deeper. The conclusion is obvious – the longer you leave a pothole unfixed, the worse it will get.
It seems to me that potholes illuminate some human foibles.
Whether its a politician trying to cover their tracks [3], or an athlete making a racist comment, or an employee fudging her resume, the pothole - mostly self-inflicted - gets deeper the more it is ignored. The pothole becomes a sinkhole!
I think this applies to the church as well. The truth of the residential school system, long suppressed, only made the pain deeper and more profound. Repairs-reconciliation of these 'potholes' will be a long process. Wounds allowed to fester in a congregation cause 'potholes' that without careful attention, only grow deeper.
Our psalmist knows that her community has had grave setbacks at the hands of her enemies. But she also knows that the solution does not lie in the communities' own expertise or strength but rather in the God who is for and with them.
13 With God we [shall do valiantly] :
God is the one who will trample our adversaries.
Notes
[1] The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan.
[2] This psalm borrows lines from Psalm 57 and Psalm 60 to make a new prayer.
[3] Judy Wilson-Reybould's - "Indian" in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power
[4] Thanks to Jim Taylor, a former editor at Wood-Lake Books for this parable which I have adapted for this article.