There’s a poem by Wendell Berry that I think of often and have
shared from the pulpit on a number of occasions – it’s one Rachelle shared with
me a number of years ago.
It’s called The Peace of
Wild Things.
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
The poet’s response to despair is to look to the care that God
shows in sustaining creation. The grace
of wood drakes resting and great herons feeding.
The simplicity of the economy of the natural world.
The poem always reminds me of Jesus’s words about lilies and
sparrows.
Jesus says in conclusion: your heavenly Father knows what you
need: so do not worry.
This modern poem came to mind as I was pondering the words of the
ancient poem we read this week:
When you are disturbed, do not sin;
ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah
Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah
Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
This phrase: “When you are
disturbed”
Really grabbed my attention.
The word used here in the
Psalm doesn’t mean exactly
what we mean by the word
disturbed.
In other translations we see
“tremble,” “quake,” “be angry,” “stand in awe”
One of the things that
English readers of the Bible have always struggled with is how hard it can be
to pin down one meaning for a given word in the Hebrew.
And there’s reason to believe
that this is intentional on the part of the writers themselves.
It shows an abundance of
meaning and possibilities that words have.
This verse gets used later by
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians when he writes:
“Be angry but do not sin; do
not let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph 4:26)
This is because Paul used the
Greek translation of the Hebrew that was in use during his writing and that
translation had chosen to hear this verse not as:
When
you are disturbed, do not sin;
But as:
Be angry, but do not sin.
The word here translated
disturbed, there translated angry or “stand in awe” or “quake” or “tremble”
Means all of these
things.
As I was reading and thinking
about the word and how it is translated in all those ways – I wanted to find a
way to translate it in my own words.
And as I’ve thought about it
and tried to imagine what the poet is saying here –
I’ve come up with my own word
that shows what I think might be going on.
I read it as
“When you are shaken up, do not sin;”
And
it got me to thinking about the things that shake me up – the things that shake
us up.
The
things that make our blood run faster, that make our adrenaline pumps run.
What
are the things that shake us up?
This
Psalm is an evening prayer.
Maybe
even a midnight prayer for those times when we are up in the middle of the night
like Wendell Berry with despair for the world –
or
perhaps some more local concern,
a
conversation or argument that left a sour taste in your heart.
Or
a feeling of having to do something or not having done something. It’s strange thing, but there seem to be
endless possible ways to get shaken-up.
And
what do we do when we are shaken up –
When
we’re shaken up in the middle of a conversation we might get angry and say
something hurtful
When
we’re shaken up and we’re by ourselves we might get overrun with what Wendell
Berry calls “forethought / of grief”
When
we’re shaken up we tend to try to shake off what has shaken us.
And
we do this impulsively at times.
And
so comes out a word we didn’t intend, a hasty action that makes things worse.
We
want to get back to the unshaken place and yet our response just shakes things
up all the more.
When
I was in my first internship up at Dartmouth-Hitchcock I learned a distinction
that has stuck with me.
When
we would be visiting people in the hospital room we never knew what to expect.
We
never knew what kinds of things would “shake us up.”
And
so our supervisor Frank taught us the difference between “reacting” and
“responding”
Reacting
is that in the moment knee-jerk word or action in the cloud of emotions.
Responding
waits a moment. Notices the reaction
before it gets out of the mouth or through the hands and considers why the
person might have done or said that and why I might have wanted to say or do
that – and in that moment makes a decision to say or do something with
awareness and intention.
Reacting
is in the moment, not through-through, emotionally charged and quick.
Responding
is cooler, intentional and deliberate and necessarily slower.
We
were good at reacting – responding took more work and required a good deal of
thoughtful intention and patience.
I
think this Psalm gives a good picture of what it means to respond rather than
react
to
being shaken up.
When you are disturbed, do not sin;
ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah
Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah
Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
A
proverb that we find in the New Testament in the letter of James is another
example of responding versus reacting:
“You
must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to
speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.”
Quick
to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.
How
many people brag about being a quick listener? And slow reactor?
Quick
to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.
In
other words. Patience – responding
rather than reacting.
It’s
helpful for me to remember that regardless of what got me shaken up – all
of those things that were out of my control – I have the ability to respond
well.
That’s
something that is in my power to do.
And
a necessary part of responding rather than reacting is cultivating a rested
heart.
It’s
like when you shake a jar of pond water and it gets cloudy.
It’s
only when the jar has been still over time does it return to a settled and
clear state.
The
Psalmist encourages all who are listening
Rest
your heart in God.
Trust
in God’s care.
The
Psalmist who we’re lead to understand has been in a shaky situation –
counsels
others to not let disturbance, the shake-up lead them to sin.
But rather – the Psalmist
bids them “Ponder it on your beds, and be
silent.” “put your trust in the Lord.”
And I love what the King James version of this Psalm says:
“commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.”
Stillness.
Communing with your own heart, trusting in God – remembering that God our
Creator is the one place of stillness and strength in the midst of
shakiness.
The
Psalmist says – you who are shaken up.
Rest
in God, be still.
Commune
with your own heart upon your bed.
And
the Psalmist finds peace from this.
Remembering
God’s abundant care,
The
shakiness begins to settle, and in the clearness gratitude returns.
“You have put gladness in my heart
more than when their grain and wine abound.
more than when their grain and wine abound.
I will both lie down and sleep in peace;
for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.”
for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.”
And in the presence of God we find peace and assurance of God’s
care.
Blessed Assurance. All our days.
It made
me think of the prayer of Teresa de Avila who as a reformer in the 16th
century no doubt knew well what it meant to feel shaken up:
“Let
nothing disturb you,
Let
nothing frighten you,
All
things are passing away:
God
never changes.
Patience
obtains all things
Whoever
has God lacks nothing;
God
alone suffices.”
Amen.
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