Rev. Jay Rowland
Psalm 17
Psalm 17 packs quite a bit into its 15 verses. David is so desperate he finds it necessary to remind God that he, David, is one of the “good guys” as he runs to God for refuge from those who seek to do him harm. I can’t help but think about how prevalent is David’s sense of urgency and his raw desperation for so many of God’s children right now. Over here, over there, nearly everywhere, people are struggling to survive, seeking refuge, living the prayer of Psalm 17.
For instance: consider the women, children, teenagers—the families—our neighbors in this hemisphere, who are fleeing unbearable living conditions; fleeing the violence of drug cartels & gangs who kidnap their children, demand money for “protection” from other gangs or drug lords; fleeing beatings, abductions, rape; seeking refuge just as any of us would. Consider the raw desperation which forces people to “choose” to walk a veritable Road to Jericho, that is, hundreds of miles of danger from bandits, predators lurking in the shadows, eager to pounce on these vulnerable refugees like lions devouring prey, ready to steal their cash, to kidnap their children, or worse, rape them or sell them as sex-slaves. If you manage to somehow survive the journey, your destination offers you a lengthy detention in conditions worse than prison, if not immediate deportation, enduring countless indignities and deprivations, and separation from, isolation of children and teenagers. All of which is terrifying and traumatizing. Meanwhile, COVID-19 thrives in these crowded detention pens. All this because you had the audacity to flee an untenable life marred by violence, abuse and hopelessness. The prayer of Psalm 17 resounds,
Show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries ... Guard [them] as the apple of the eye; hide [them] in the shadow of your wings, [hide them] from the wicked who despoil, [from] deadly enemies who surround them. Whose hearts are closed to pity; whose mouths speak arrogantly. They track me down; now they surround me; they set their eyes to cast me [down]. They are like a lion eager to [devour], like a young lion lurking in ambush.
Consider also, the raw desperation and the urgency of people living with the daily threat of ending up like George Floyd, or Breonna Taylor, or Ahmaud Arbery, or Philiando Castille, or … Don Myrick gifted saxophonist who toured the world and my heart as a member of Earth Wind and Fire, shot in his own apartment, killed by an LAPD officer 27 years ago today as we record this (July 30, 1993). Consider the people who lived in Greenwood Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa, which in the year 1921 was brutally attacked by armed whites, who looted and torched Black homes and businesses, killed and tortured and hunted down Black residents like they were animals. Then this once shining city, a symbol of hope and prosperity to Black people everywhere, a place known as the Black Wall Street, was gleefully reduced to ashes by ordinary white Tulsans. Then this horror was immediately, unceremoniously buried, forgotten, invisible to history, as if it never happened.1 The prayer of Psalm 17 resounds,
Show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries ... Guard [them] as the apple of the eye; hide [them] in the shadow of your wings, [hide them] from the wicked who despoil, [from] deadly enemies who surround them. Whose hearts are closed to pity; whose mouths speak arrogantly. They track me down; now they surround me; they set their eyes to cast me [down]. They are like a lion eager to [devour], like a young lion lurking in ambush.
Consider all who are struggling to survive the COVID19 pandemic. Survive not only the lethal illness itself, but the collateral damage it inflicts on the financial health and well-being of mostly middle class and small businesses and on the national and world economy. This virus keeps on killing …. children & adults, & teenagers too: sons & daughters; mothers & fathers; grandmothers & grandfathers; the famous & the not-so-famous; striking elected officials & unelected officials; people with preexisting conditions & people without pre-existing conditions. Multitudes sickened, multitudes dead and dying, one thousand per day in our nation right now … stolen from their families, or fighting to breathe.
As if all of this was not in itself horrific enough, we see images every day of arrogant, self-righteous individuals angrily proclaiming their constitutional right to refuse to wear a mask. These individuals include prominent voices in government and church openly encouraging this defiance of common sense, fanning the flame of a raging virus-fire, completely tone-deaf to the sheer lunacy of politicizing a public health necessity. Wearing a mask is an effective way to reduce the risk of spreading this destroyer of a virus which is already stealing the “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” people are so self-righteously screaming and demanding in grocery stores and social media blasts. Hear the prayer of Psalm 17 resounding,
Show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries ... Guard [us] as the apple of Your eye; hide [us] in the shadow of your wings, [hide tus] from the wicked who despoil, [from] deadly enemies who surround us. Whose hearts are closed to pity; whose mouths speak arrogantly. … . They are like a lion eager to [devour], like a young lion lurking in ambush.
If only human consciousness could be transported, implanted if only for a moment, it would take all of two, maybe five minutes for even the strongest among us to discover the unbearable realities so many people have to endure through no fault of their own. Instead there is so much righteous indignation, so much arrogance polluting the air and the airwaves, blind to and tacitly supporting the unacceptable yet inescapable torment people are trying so hard to escape. Not even David himself had to face the sustained torment so many people of color do every day, generation after generation of people, all of whom are made in the image and likeness of God.
Bible scholar Yolanda Norton notes how the petition to “guard me as the apple of the eye” is a common refrain in the Hebrew Bible. It appears in Deuteronomy (32:10), where it is explained how God sustained Jacob in the wilderness and “guarded him as the apple of his eye.” A rather interesting reference given what we know about Jacob—the one who steals his brother Esau’s birthright and ultimately flees to live on the run from Esau out in the desert!
“While Jacob was far from perfect,” Norton explains “his [life] was filled with loss, reconciliation, and a continued desire to struggle with God in difficult situations.” This tells us that God’s ear is inclined to hear a just cause whether or not it comes from a just person. “We often misinterpret righteousness as perfection,” Norton says. What gets God’s attention is not the righteousness of the person praying, but rather the personal prayer that God protect the innocent. Our transgressions do not define who we are in God’s eyes, Norton observes. And so righteousness tends to blind us to God’s intrinsic mercy.
Psalm 17 would set us free from any notion of self-righteousness. No one should have to endure any cruelty or injury--intended or unintended--which too often accompanies individual brands of “righteousness”. Psalm 17 boldly sends us to God boldly expecting God to deliver all who seek refuge from stubborn, unyielding forces standing in the way of their refuge. The prayer of Psalm 17 would thus also have us ask God to show us how we can best be God’s allies in this world.
Psalm 17’s lyrical request, “hide me in the shadow of your wings” (v 8) is also a powerful image appearing throughout the Hebrew Bible. God’s wings of protection and shelter appear in six different chapters of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:2; 8:8; 10:14; 11:12; 18:1; 24:16) (Norton). The prophet Ezekiel has some twenty-three references to wings (Norton). “The prophets ” Norton declares, “conjure wings in both natural and fantastic, supernatural contexts, to signify God’s presence and provision in the midst of chaotic circumstances.”
Norton also notes how even in Exodus (19:4) God’s “wings” are a sign of deliverance not only from empire but also from forces of nature, testifying to God’s shelter to those who have been traumatized, those who have been displaced by humanity’s inhumanity—the worst of empire and nature. The refuge of God is deliverance from seemingly insurmountable situations. Solace can be found in the long and deep shadow of God’s “wings” (Norton).
And so I say let us, then, in the midst of our present chaotic circumstances, boldly look to God’s wings, stretched out before us to provide refuge to God’s people everywhere. Let us hold fast to this profound hope in God. Though chaos often appears unrestrained and though at times we feel like we’re surrounded not only by the menace of this virus but also by human arrogance unleashing all kinds of unnecessary harm, we are surrounded all the more by the everlasting Arms of a Loving God, in the outstretched arms of Jesus—not only from the Cross, but into every crossroad we find ourselves.
As we share again the Sacrament of Communion, hold fast to and remember Jesus’ words, “take and eat … this is my body, given for you.” Together let us take refuge in Him. In His Body. For God’s Everlasting Arms, Jesus’ Outstretched Arms enfold and surround us, drawing us into God’s Embrace—God’s wings of shelter, the apple of God’s eye. You, and me, and everyone seeking refuge.
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Notes:
1 The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by Tim Madigan (St. Martin’s, 2003)
Observations from Biblical Scholar Yolanda Norton appear in Commentary on Psalm 17, 2019. https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4277
