Living Word
Today's reflection is by Ron Fairchild, our Synod's Discipleship Team leader and a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Westminster, MD.
Psalm 27 has been a focus of our readings for the past several days. It also happens to be the text that we discussed during a recent adult Bible class about the Psalms that I am facilitating this year at Grace. So, this reflection benefits from the rich conversation that our community of faith had about the theme of “defiant confidence” found in this text.
Our class focused on verses 10 and 11 in the Psalm, which we read together using various translations. I especially like Robert Alter’s translation from the Hebrew which is, “Though my father and mother forsook me, the LORD would gather me in. Teach me, O LORD, Your way, and lead me on a level path because of my adversaries.”
The Hebrew word for adversaries, shorerim, in this text only appears a half dozen times in the Psalms and nowhere else in the entire Bible. Alter says that it is derived from the verbal root that means “to gleefully watch someone’s humiliation.” During our class, we reflected on fact that without enemies, the Psalms likely would not have existed. We also talked about how often we see the most defiant and inspiring declarations of faith and confidence in God take root in the soil of abandonment, intimidation, and suffering.
When chaos swirls, death surrounds, and all else fails, God remains, gathers, and gently leads us in ways we cannot fathom and may only scarcely believe.
May God give us strength and a defiant hope in that eternal truth.
