From Rev. Jerry Eve
Thursday
Psalm 31:9-16; 1 Samuel 16:11-13; Philippians 1:1-11
I mentioned Red Letter Christianity yesterday, a movement founded by Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis. I might have mentioned as well that a Red Letter Day, of course, all the way from Roman times, has been a special occasion, and I think that would have been part of their thinking too – that, as well as prioritising the words of Christ, they also wanted to encourage the celebration of our Christian faith. Incidentally, I’ve just discovered there’s Blue Letter Christianity emanating from the United States as well. An offshoot of something called The Sowing Circle Ministry (as in gardening rather than dressmaking), it makes numerous translations of Scripture available to readers online, blue referring to the hyperlinks there are within the text.
The portion of Psalm 31 we’re asked to read today is bleak. Earlier on, at verse 5, we have those last words of Jesus from the cross that are quoted in Luke 23:46: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit." The psalm itself begins, and it's usually titled, “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust,” but from verses 9 – 13 David is having a good moan [which is okay – God can take it!]; and one part that makes total sense to us at the moment is the last part of verse 11: “those who see me in the street flee from me”. If we didn’t know what was going on, then it would seem very odd the way we’re all giving one another such a wide berth just now.
But it couldn’t have been easy being David. We meet him first of all in 1 Samuel 16. And I do like the description of him as ‘ruddy’. This has been invoked by some, not to describe David’s complexion but in common with many Scots, to give him red hair. What a huge burden, though, to place upon the youngest member of a large family like that; for the prophet Samuel to come and dismiss all your older siblings in favour of you. It would have been similar for Joseph.
And “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” is the way Shakespeare put it when he put these words into the mouth of Henry IV, phraseology that, somewhat corrupted, my own children know quite well these days thanks to Stormzy’s album, ‘Heavy is the head’. But however much politicians yearn for power, it can’t be at all easy for them once they have all that responsibility, especially at a time such as this. As Henry does, however – while the ‘wet sea-boy’ is able to sleep – David too brings all his grievances to God in prayer, and then in verses 14 – 16, having got his worries out of his system to some extent, he then turns his face to the world once again in a positive light saying to God, ‘My times are in your hand’, words that have often been used to illuminate clock faces including this one on a German sundial.
Let us pray:
STRETCH forth, O Lord most mightie, Thy right hand over me, and defend me from mine enemys, that they never prevayle against me. Give me, O Lord, the assistance of Thy Spiritt, and comfort of Thy grace, truly to know Thee, intirely to love Thee, and assuredly to trust in Thee. (Queen Elizabeth I of England)
