Loud, quiet and everything in-between

Rhona Cathcart March 21, 2022 0 2

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Psalm 63: 1-8 (NRSVA)

1 O God, you are my God, I seek you,
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
    beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
    my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
    I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
    and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
6 when I think of you on my bed,
    and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
    and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
    your right hand upholds me.

Over my life people have tended to point out my ‘clear and carrying voice’, a fact first identified when I was repeatedly chosen to fill the role of narrator in school plays. I know how to speak loudly, to fill a room, but more recently I was touched and humbled when speaking to someone on the phone whom I hadn’t met and whose father’s funeral I was arranging at a distance. She finished the call by saying to me ‘Thank you so much. I’ve been feeling so stressed, but your voice is so calming. I feel much better after speaking to you.” I can be loud but I can be quiet too. A sense of calmness, of restfulness, is often what people look for — not just in times of stress — but in worship. Restful worship is wonderful and restorative. But it’s not the only kind of worship. Psalm 63 reminds us we can bring all our complicated emotions, along with our parched lips and fainting flesh, into our praise of God. In a difficult world, sometimes the best kind of worship is the kind that stirs and prods us, rather than calms us.

PRAYER:

God of all things,

My soul thirsts and I am weary

I long for an oasis of calm

A place of stillness and safety

And yet I know, that some days, I am not called to peace.

Sometimes the storm is where I belong, clinging to your wings,

Frightened but invigorated, following the flight path of resurrection.

Amen