Christians talk about the “fallen” state of Creation. Non-Christians talk about all that is “broken” in our world. Different perspectives render different conclusions about the same experiences; but those experiences can be devastating, regardless of perspective. No matter who you are or what you believe, fallen-ness can trip you up to hurl you face down. Broken-ness can splinter sharp shards straight into your heart. Suffering is an equal opportunity stalker.
This has been one of those face-down, heart-punctured kind of weeks for me. A week when the grief of watching generational sin cycle itself in real time has kept me stumbling, stupid. A week when the cacophony “out there” couldn’t compete with the incessantly howling despair ringing in my ears from inside my own head. Pain can be a prison, amen?
An advantage of accumulating years on the planet is that you stockpile memories of such weeks, references you can recall when in the midst of a new one, to remind yourself: “This feels like you are going to die, but you are not. Remember when…?” However, that reference-stockpile is the definition of cold comfort.
Crazy Texas weather has amplified the cold comfort effect; my roses are frozen stiff and the tender new growth of Turks’ Cap has turned black in the frigid air. Based on balmy conditions since Christmas, we thought winter had taken the year off. Evidently not. The fact is, blooming is risky. Life – living in a fallen, broken world – is risky.
King David never experienced Texas weather, but he was intimately acquainted with the cold comforts of surviving repeated tragedies. Hunted, haunted, and betrayed, David was “a man after God’s own heart” even as David was intimately acquainted with the face-down, heart-punctured variety of weeks. Ultimately, David’s immersion in fallen-ness and broken-ness is what gave David his powerful, persuasive voice: his praises to God cost him dearly, as his pleas to God so poignantly illustrate.
Because David articulated healing knowledge based on hard experience, David’s books of songs – the Psalms – are my go-to place for solace and company when fallen-ness and broken-ness have me captive. And one of his songs pulled me up and out of my pain-pit this morning.
I confess that Psalm 136 has not been one of my favorite Psalms. It’s a bit long, very repetitive, and features wacky tidbits of obscure Israelite history (King Og of Bashan’s murder, anyone?). It’s conspicuously lacking in the kind of soul-cries that I usually seek to echo and to soothe my own. But this morning it spoke to me – sang to me, even – and I have a new reverence for it as truth-medicine for the fallen, broken disease.
Psalm 136 is an antiphonal Psalm, a call-and-response set-up that describes highlights of ancient history in a syncopated pattern alternating with a single repeated phrase: “… for His steadfast love endures forever.”
“His” is “God’s.” Psalm 136 creates this incredible dynamic of historic events (the good, the bad, the ugly) and historic people (likewise) appearing sequentially against the steady (“steadfast”) drumbeat of God’s love.
The rhythmic repetition of words builds emphasis as that line anchors details of successive deeds, disasters, triumphs… Creation, the Exodus, the Promised Land vs. ongoing tenderness and advocacy and provision… Everything, everything set to the beat: “for His steadfast love endures forever.”
The Psalm gives poetic form to the truth that history is a trajectory of constant change… that life is flux and history is life as lived out beyond the boundaries of a lifetime, therefore history is flux, too… but…
But God’s love
But God’s love – is steadfast. God’s love is constant, unchanging, unchangeable.
No matter what the moment in history holds, it will pass – while the permanence and stability of God’s love will persist.
An amplifying truth: History doesn’t just change; history reacts and explodes, recoils and implodes. Because history is created by humans, and humans are fallen and broken, history will often be ugly and evil, a record of people hurting people. Evidence abounds: plagues, wars, famines… historic events are often unendurable.
But God’s love
But God’s love – endures. Forever. God’s love is built of such resilient and potent stuff that history only demonstrates its endurance. History may break people, but history cannot break God’s love. And humanity – no matter how fallen, how broken – cannot push God’s love to the breaking point because God’s love endures forever – forever, beyond the bounds of history itself.
Flux. Change. Terror. Trauma. But God’s love… steadfast… endures. Forever.
But God’s love… in the Beloved
The “why” of Jesus applies emphatically here. In Jesus, God entered history, as a human. Subjecting Himself to all the frailties and failures of His fallen world, Jesus taught by example that living in history doesn’t mean being broken by history (even if history kills you, for real, in a moment).
In Jesus, God made history – and rendered history obsolete, at the same time.
In Jesus, God blazed a trail into “forever” for any / all who care to follow Him on it.
But God’s love… in this moment
Maybe you’ve just wrapped a face-down heart-punctured week, too.
Maybe you’re overwhelmed by the face-down, heart-shredded weeks lived by the millions of folks who are suffering in the midst of the present moment in history.
If either of those descriptions fits, then I invite you to sit for a while with King David. Let him sing you God’s love song – triumphant over all history (even our own).
God’s steadfast love endures forever. God’s steadfast love endures forever. God’s steadfast love endures forever.
And Jesus is with us, even now. Even now. Even now.
Psalm 136
God’s Work in Creation and in History
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
2 O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;4 who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
5 who by understanding made the heavens,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
6 who spread out the earth on the waters,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
7 who made the great lights,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his steadfast love endures forever;10 who struck Egypt through their firstborn,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
11 and brought Israel out from among them,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
13 who divided the Red Sea in two,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
16 who led his people through the wilderness,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
17 who struck down great kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
18 and killed famous kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
20 and Og, king of Bashan,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
21 and gave their land as a heritage,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
22 a heritage to his servant Israel,
for his steadfast love endures forever.23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
24 and rescued us from our foes,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
25 who gives food to all flesh,
for his steadfast love endures forever.26 O give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
