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- Apr 25, 2006
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9 April 2008
Word on the Web
Psalm 73 v 13-17
So why have I kept my heart pure? Why have I kept my hands from doing wrong?
I have suffered all day long; I have been punished every morning.
God, if I had decided to talk like this, I would have let your people down.
I tried to understand all this, but it was too hard for me to see
until I went to the Temple of God. Then I understood what will happen to them.
Yes, why have I kept my heart pure?
We all wrestle with God at some time in our lives. It is as natural to our faith as a river flowing towards the sea. So much changes around us, new science, mistakes we make, the actions of other people that press on us. I wonder in what way the writer of these verses suffered and was punished? It surely wasn't God who tested the writer. There is no mention that the writer was persecuted by other people. I wonder if the writer's pain came out of endless questions about God and what was happening - a kind of mental acrobatic performance, trying to make an understanding of God fit with the situation. The writer tried to understand but it was too hard to see, maybe trying harder and harder, and in doing so beating themselves up inside. Then, one day in the sanctuary of the Temple of God it all fell into place. What was complicated became simple, maybe through silence, or through beauty, or through worship or singing. Perhaps it was a discovery that a relationship with God is exactly that, a relationship, and not an intellectual problem. It wasn't so hard after all.
In Faith, as hard I try, I won't have to try hard with you O God. Amen.
Written by Denis Tully
Word on the Web
Psalm 73 v 13-17
So why have I kept my heart pure? Why have I kept my hands from doing wrong?
I have suffered all day long; I have been punished every morning.
God, if I had decided to talk like this, I would have let your people down.
I tried to understand all this, but it was too hard for me to see
until I went to the Temple of God. Then I understood what will happen to them.
Yes, why have I kept my heart pure?
We all wrestle with God at some time in our lives. It is as natural to our faith as a river flowing towards the sea. So much changes around us, new science, mistakes we make, the actions of other people that press on us. I wonder in what way the writer of these verses suffered and was punished? It surely wasn't God who tested the writer. There is no mention that the writer was persecuted by other people. I wonder if the writer's pain came out of endless questions about God and what was happening - a kind of mental acrobatic performance, trying to make an understanding of God fit with the situation. The writer tried to understand but it was too hard to see, maybe trying harder and harder, and in doing so beating themselves up inside. Then, one day in the sanctuary of the Temple of God it all fell into place. What was complicated became simple, maybe through silence, or through beauty, or through worship or singing. Perhaps it was a discovery that a relationship with God is exactly that, a relationship, and not an intellectual problem. It wasn't so hard after all.
In Faith, as hard I try, I won't have to try hard with you O God. Amen.
Written by Denis Tully
