PSALM 27:1. 4-9
Sunday, January 23th
Rev. Dr. Anta Farber-Robertson
Scripture: Psalm 27:1. 4-9
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
6 Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.
7 Hear my voice when I call, LORD; be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you “Seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior.
Meditation
I enjoy reading the Bible. Well, not all of it. Some of it is boring. When I was a child I tried starting at the beginning and got so bogged down in the begats and begots, I never got any further. And some of the bible is disturbing. It is, after all, the story of a people’s unfolding and becoming. It is full of wise decisions and foolish mistakes, of generous hearts and miserly meanness. It has forgiveness and revenge and all the human behaviors in between. It is a frighteningly earthy, fleshy chronicle of the story from which we have come.
It continues to challenge us today about the lives we live and the choices we make, and the meanings we draw from the days of our lives. And it is always open to new insights and interpretations that can expand our horizons in ways we had not known possible. It was after all our forebears’ conviction that God is an all loving, all inclusive reconciler that allowed the Unitarians and the Universalists to be interested in world religions as they discovered the faiths of others around the globe. They could do that because their liberal Christian faith pushed them to do it. God’s love and embrace is all inclusive.
So when I engage in reading the bible I remember that I have the blessings and encouragement from our brave and inspiring ancestors upon whose shoulders I stand, Abraham and Moses, Ruth and Esther, Amos, Jesus, Theodore Parker, William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hosea and Adin Ballou, Julia Ward Howe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Joseph Tuckerman, all men and women from our tradition who found the values of humanism and expansive inclusion in our bible, and in those biblical texts and stories the strength and support that would help them answer the call of love.
The words from the first letter of John offer the essence of the biblical story.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and the one who loves is born of God and knows God….God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides him.
When we can trust in that, believe in that, act as if it were true, it is as though we were calling God into being, letting Love become flesh.
I read the lectionary reading for Sunday, Psalm 27:1. 4-9. It was okay, but it didn’t transport me, push me to another level, until… until I thought of the words from the first letter of John, that God is love, and I got an idea I had never had before. I took that Psalm, and every place that the Psalmist had written, Lord, or God, I substituted Love. And my heart swelled.
One thing I ask from LOVE,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of LOVE
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of LOVE
and to seek Love in Love’s own temple.
For in the day of trouble Love will keep me safe in his dwelling; Love will hide me in the shelter of Love’s sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at Love’s sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to LOVE.
Hear my voice when I call, LOVE; be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you “Seek his face!”
Your face, LOVE, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me, LOVE my Savior
…
One thing I ask from LOVE,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of LOVE
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of LOVE
and to seek Love in Love’s own temple.
For in the day of trouble Love will keep me safe
Your face, Love, I will seek.
LOVE my Savior
As I experienced the shift the change of one word made, I thought of Hafiz, who wrote:
Pulling out the chair
Beneath your mind
And watching you fall upon God-
That is what happened to me. I hope it might happen for you, when you read the Psalm with the word Love used for God, when you pray the scripture and you notice a word that changes everything, when you let the text speak as if for the first time, and it says something entirely new.
Pulling out the chair
Beneath your mind
And watching you fall upon God-
Focus Questions
Can you remember a time when your understanding of a word or a phrase changed, and it changed how you looked at things in ways you had not considered before?
Was it disorienting? Unsettling? Liberating?
How did you understand that at the time? Do you understand it differently now?
How might other passages in the bible change for you if you substituted the word Love for the word Lord, or God? Are there other words you might try?
Prayer
Gracious God, Spirit of Life, Solace in Sorrow, Granter of Grace, Lover of All, hear our prayers. We come with high hopes and fragile faith. We come before you with hearts that long for love, and lives that ache for meaning. We come with dreams that have sustained us and disappointments that have disarmed us. We have known love and loss, trust and betrayal. We have been fountains of generosity and withholding misers of our gifts. We are imperfect. Thank you God, for your acceptance of our imperfect selves, for your forbearance and forgiveness, for your willingness to let us try and try again, walking with us through our wilderness, loving us through the journey. May we continue to seek to make your ways our ways, your love our love. Grant us strength and courage to be your agents of love and blessing in all we do. Amen