Psalms in the Silence

Be Still and Know that I am God

Psalm 46:10 

We had such a beautiful "Great Silence" retreat this spring.  Every retreatant was able to come.  The weather was perfect, sunny and not too hot.  The food prepared by our very own contemplative chef was tasty and delicious ... it really makes a difference!  Our theme was the Psalms and we found lovely creative ways to enter into them as we followed Walter Brueggemann's Spirituality of the Psalms  to structure our retreat.   

The bible is the grand story of God and God’s people as they journey together.   In the journey there are basically 2 movements within 3 spaces.  We see movements toward God and movements away from God, dancing through life with one another, we move.  

Brueggemann has a wonderful way of inviting us to see those 3 dancing spaces of life reflected in the Psalms:  Orientation, Disorientation, and (often surprising) Reorientation.  As we moved through our retreat, we practiced this rhythm … practicing the rhythm invites us and increases our trust that after every bout of disorientation there will be a reorientation to invite us deeper in our relationship with God, often with a delightful surprise.

We worked with images as we created Psalm Collages and some of us wrote our own Psalms from scratch.  We sat by the lake and we hiked through the woods as, gazing upon beauty, the Psalms came alive for us.  

Perhaps you might like to try your hand at writing a Creation Psalm:

Take your Journal and go on a walk in the presence of God in Creation.   If you can't take a walk, gaze upon a photo of nature that draws you in and allows you to walk in your imagination.  As you walk, breathe in the beauty and wonder you find.   Now … be still in the Presence.   As you become attuned to the nature that envelops you, take time to write down what you notice.  Use these prompts to start writing.  Let the words flow without thinking about them now. 

• I see … I hear … I smell … I feel the texture of … 
• How is God present in Creation?  
• How does God make God-Self known to you here? 
• What does the beauty of your surroundings remind you of … any memories emerge? 
• I want to ask God our Creator this about what I have experienced in nature …  
• I want to tell God our Creator that creation is, for me … or Creation feels like …  
• When I consider the presence of God in creation, I sense a desire to say the following phrase over and over again …
  

Consider the impact and effect nature has had on you today and look over what you have written, circling words and/or phrases that you are drawn to.  You are ready to write a psalm employing the Hebrew literary device used by many of the psalmists, known as parallelism, in which the second line repeats the structure of the first line, such as in the psalm verses above.  Note the way the author has used parallelism … Try these exercises:

• Lists:  Make a short list of things you found on your walk that you are thankful to God for.  Take your list and express your thankfulness to God. (Ps 83:13-15) 
• Restatement:  The first line is not repeated, it is restated.  Write a statement to God about what you found on your walk in nature and then restate it.  (Ps 148:1) 
• Questions: Write several lines, each beginning with “Why …”  (Ps 74:1) 
• Repetition:  Take a word or phrase and alternate with new lines.  (Ps 118) 
• Addressing the Divine:  Consider new names and images of God evoked by your walk

My personal favorite resource for Psalm writing is Writing the Sacred: A Psalm-Inspired Path to Appreciating and Writing Sacred Poetry by Ray McGinnis 

Enjoy ... Psalms in the Silence!
 

New Life!

Easton Matthew Serio

Precious little Easton Matthew, May the music of the psalms

resonate in your soul forever as you bask in God's love for you

 

O Lord, you ...know everything about me ...
You go before me and follow me.
      You place your hand of blessing on my head ...

                                                  your hand will guide me                                                 

      and your strength will support me.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
      and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
      Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
      as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
 You saw me before I was born.
      Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
 Every moment was laid out
      before a single day had passed.
 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
      They cannot be numbered!
 I can’t even count them;
      they outnumber the grains of sand!
 And when I wake up, you are still with me!  Amen

Grandma Cindy praying excerpts from Psalm 139

A Psalm of Lament

This week in our Psalm study we are looking at Psalm 80, which is a psalm of lament.  We are trying this form of prayer as an exercise to understand how to express our deeper, darker emotions especially in times when the theology contained in our minds falls short ... Where are you, O God of my heart?   Here is a current adaptation of a lament I wrote in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina several years ago:

A PSALM OF LAMENT

1.    Call  

Oh Lord, my God and my Strength

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
2.    Description of trouble

What is wrong with me, that you hide your presence?
And refuse to sit with me in my closet of shame
I’m lost and afraid of the darkness that surrounds me
I run aimlessly as my soul longs for you
I am desperate for you as I search and do not hear your voice
I find only empty promises and bitter blows
My heart falters under the strain
How I must disappoint you, my God and my King

3.    Plea for God to respond

Come to me in the time of my despair
Crush my spirit under the strain of my suffering
Satisfy your holiness with the cleansing of my heart
Have mercy upon me, my God and my Redeemer

4.    Statement of trust that God is listening

I will fear no longer for I trust in your everlasting presence
You listen yet choose not to respond for the sake of my soul
Your discipline will somehow save me from this material world
As you form me in an image fit for heaven, my God and my Creator

5.    Vow or expression of praise

All the days of my life I will seek your face
I will wrestle with you until you answer me
And I will praise your most holy name, my God and my Love 

Amen.

© 2006 Cindy Serio

Experiencing Psalm 15 through Prayer

Our Psalms for Summer Study is helping me live and breathe the  Psalms ... Learning to adapt the psalms for personal devotional prayers, conversing with the Psalmist, and allowing my emotions to really emerge as I pray has drawn me closer to God in a new and deepening way.  Psalm 15 is probably an entrance psalm which means that the people cried out the initial questions as they approached the entrance to the Tabernacle/Temple.  The priests responded with the remainder of the psalm.  As you read ... the psalm, bold print on the left with my adaptation italicized on the right.

 

Psalm 15 ... A Psalm of David.
Adapted for Prayer from the Good News Translation

Lord, who may enter your Temple?
Who may worship on Zion, your sacred hill?

Temple Mount (present day) Courtesy of BiblePlaces.com

Those who obey God in everything

Help me, O God to be obedient

and always do what is right,

Lead me, O God to always do what’s right

whose words are true and sincere,

Fill me, O God with words that truthful and sincere

and who do not slander others.

Keep me, O God from speaking falsely against others.

They do no wrong to their friends

Assist me, O God to always do right by my friends

nor spread rumors about their neighbors.

Help me, O God to always do right by everyone else too!

They despise those whom God rejects,

Free me, O God from thinking I know whom you reject

but honor those who obey the Lord.

Fill me, O God with respect for your obedient servants

They always do what they promise,

Enable me, O God to do what I say I will do

no matter how much it may cost.

Protect me, O God from the pain of my righteous actions

They make loans without charging interest

Create in me, O God a giving and generous heart

and cannot be bribed to testify against the innocent.

Keep me, O God from being tempted to speak against the guiltless

Whoever does these things will always be secure.  AMEN …

Psalms and Camp for Summer!

I am living in and praying with the Psalms this summer!   In addition to using the psalms as my personal prayer-book, I am leading a Summer Class on Sunday mornings and writing my bible study blog on the Psalms.  What I love about the psalms is the raw emotion that flows in and out from them ... they are messy, just like life!  Sometimes I'm happy and sometimes I'm angry and sometimes I am filled with joy but sometimes I'm overwhelmed with grief.  Sometimes, I just want to praise God for who God is and what God creates.  It's all right there ... in the psalms!

I spent this week with senior high kids at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center close to Palestine, Texas.  Pictures available soon!  It was exhausting and HOT ... I loved the time we spent together in the morning worshiping by the lake which was so peaceful ... I got to draw and pray in the silence.  But by far the most beautiful moment was in the evening as I was walking from one activity to another ... the sun reflecting into the clouds ... making them shine and glow in a myriad of beautiful colors ... inviting me into prayer ...

God of all Creation ... Let your people be happy
   and celebrate because of you.

Our God, you are the one
   who rides on the clouds, and we praise you.
 
Your name is the LORD, and we celebrate
   as we worship you.  From Psalm 68: 3-4