Tags
Deliverance, Grace, Incarnation, Mt. Sinai, New Creation, Prayer, Psalm 81:6-7, The exodus, Word of God
Day 18
Wednesday in the Third week of Lent
Psalm 81:6-7
I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
….your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you;
….I answered you in the secret place of thunder.
The words of the poet are richly evocative. With poetic precision the story of the people is named. God delivered them from bondage in Egypt and brought them to Sinai. There God spoke and established a covenant to be their God and they God’s people.
Everything about our relationship with God begins with an act of mercy, an act of deliverance, and a revelation of the divine word, God’s voice.
The people heard that voice at the mountain. Moses heard it at the burning bush. Jacob heard it as he laid his head upon a rock while fleeing from his brother. Abraham heard it in the night as he gazed at the stars. Sarah heard it as she listened from the tent. Noah heard it when they had come forth from the ark. Elijah heard it in the silence after the storm at Horeb, having fled Jezebel’s murderous vow. Deborah heard it under the palm tree. Isaiah heard it in the temple, Ezekiel at the River Chebar, in exile far from home. The poet heard it in the wonder of the creation and in the power of the thunderstorm. The crowd heard it at Jesus baptism, and John tells us that Jesus was the incarnation of that word. It is a word that continues to come to us through the scriptures and woven into water and bread. It is a word full of grace and power to call forth what is not yet, a people holy and a world made whole.
In distress you called, and I rescued you;
….I answered you in the secret place of thunder.
Perfect Love, Tender Guard,
grant us bold and open hearts
to trust in your deliverance.
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Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MtSinaiJune2006.JPG; Mabdalla, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
© David K Bonde, 2021, All rights reserved