A Song of Waiting
Beloved People of God,
There’s no excuse for my sense of humor. That’s an important place to start. It pops up in the strangest of places. For example, in high school my best friend and I named our dorm room. No, that wasn’t a normal practice. Dorms had names. Rooms didn’t. But I’d been spending dedicated time in the Psalms of Ascent, and I was taken by the thought of pilgrims crossing arid valleys to reach the Temple (Psalms 120-134). Some would pass through valleys like Baca (dehydrating places of weeping), and in the heat and distance, they’d become faint and thirsty (Psalm 84). Priests, therefore, would go into the plains and dig pits so when the rains came the pilgrims would be met with refreshing water along the way. Inspired we named our dorm room “Baca.”
I wanted to be like those priests, meeting people in their lowest valleys. But I’m also a sucker for a good play on words. Our dorm’s name was Chui, so when people asked where we lived on campus, we said… “Chui baca.” (I’ll see myself out.)
This week, we find ourselves climbing our way up the Psalms of Ascent, the songs pilgrims sang nearing Jerusalem. But, with the Temple in sight, instead of another song of mountainside praise, we find ourselves giving voice to a psalm of lament (Psalm 130)! It’s as if the closer we get to the presence of God we become more aware of what we’ve carried with us in the valley. It isn’t just the thirst the arid place produces or the weeping that’s left us weary, but our deeper need of sanctification. It’s in the valley we realize our increasing thirst for God’s righteousness (Matthew 5.6). That’s a more important place to (re)start.
Marcus Mumford describes these emotions beautifully in a new song describing his own journey of faith. How “walking through the valley was what brought me here / I knew I would never make it on my own / And I don't know how it took so long to shed this skin / To live under the shadow of your wings / You are all I want / You’re all I need / I’ll find peace beneath the shadow of your wings.”
As we journey through the penitential psalms, these songs in the valley, may we find the peace of lament beneath the shadow of God’s wings (Psalm 57.1; 91.4).
For His Name’s Sake,
Brett