Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III tells this story, “My father asked an elder woman in his congregation, “How are you doing, Mother?” She replied, ‘I’m living between Oh Lord and Thank you, Jesus.’” Moss goes on, “For the most part, many of us are living in between, not quite at “Oh Lord” and not quite at “Thank you, Jesus,” but somewhere in between.”
As women, that’s certainly how we live. Some days it’s “Oh, Lord.” We get a call from the doctor we never wanted to receive. It breaks us. “Oh, God!” At another time, when God has answered our most fervent prayers, and we see two pink lines after years of tries and failures, we go to our knees and cry, “Thank you, Jesus!” But, as Rev. Moss mentioned, most of the time we toggle somewhere in between small joys and petty annoyances. Maybe we find what we’ve been searching for on Google immediately, “yay, God.” Then there are days when we get our knickers in a knot because we’re running late, and the school pickup line is as long as it’s ever been. “Why me, and why now?”
Moss’s story reminds me of the psalmists of old who reached out to God and poured out their hearts about what was going on in their lives by crying “O, Lord” or “Thank You, God.” These were neither vague pleas or praises to a distant or formal god nor mere hopes that God might hear them and respond. Their songs and prayers were personal, intimate, and sure. The psalmists called God Yahweh, which comes from the verb to be—a living, acting God, a loving companion, and a friend to whom they could lay out what was in the deepest part of their hearts and feel heard. We’re no different today.
The Psalms speak across differences in cultures, social contexts, and even centuries. They’re loved for their emotional rawness, urge toward justice, and blunt candor about the frazzled edges of a life spent walking with God. So too, we are taught how to communicate with God through the psalms. Quoting my seminary professor, Dr. John Goldingay, “Psalms make it possible to say things that are otherwise unsayable.” At times the psalms give us words to express anguish that we cannot bring ourselves to express. At other times they allow us to express the joy we feel when mere words fail to convey the spiritual joy we experience. And at still other times, we don’t turn to the Psalms because they say or feel what we already believe or feel, but because by speaking them we can come to believe what they say, feel what they feel, and trust where they trust. In this, they give us courage, stamina, and the promise that no matter what we do or what we face, God is with us with unwavering grace and love.
In this most sacred season of our Christian calendar, let’s return to the Psalms in our daily times with God to help us understand and utilize the powerful gift of the cross by assuring us that God is alive in us and in our world.
Peace and Love,
HTC UWFaith Soul Care / Spiritual Growth Coordinator
*I’ll be happy to answer questions - just click on my name above to send me an email.
