The text: Psalm 124 – NRSV
It may seem difficult to relate to a psalm like this, a psalm that offers thanks to God for victory in battle. It’s been a very long time since actual battles happened in North America, and so few of us who live there may understand what it is like to have an invading army rampaging through land that you call home. But such was very much the case for ancient Israel, whose land was a crossroads between the massive empires of Egypt and first Assyria and then Babylon. It may be hard to imagine what it was like to live under the continual threat of invasion from every direction; even the Mediterranean Sea was not safe, as it was the source of the Philistine invasions. It should be no surprise then that ancient Israel saw God’s actions as an explanation for their survival in such a hostile world.
Perhaps one way to approach this psalm is to remember that all psalms are poetry and therefore highly symbolic, and that Hebrew poetry can often be read at several levels: that of the nation (the surface read of this psalm), that of a local community, and that of the individual. So the psalm could be about our nation; it could be about our local church, workplace, or family; or it could be about us individually. Battles assault us in life at all three levels. What are the struggles in your own life? Are they issues at the national level? Are they conflicts at your workplace or within your family? Are they individual battles with a life crisis, a close relationship, or illness? Taking a moment to name these battles before reading the psalm again, particularly those in which you have seen God’s hand and guidance, and then allowing the psalm to speak into that struggle may be a path to a meaningful Lenten prayer of thanksgiving.
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