By Sr. Doreen, SSJD
The October theme of the Anglican Church Calendar is from psalm 65:11 “You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.”
Psalm 65 is a wonderful psalm in praise for a cornucopia of goodness! It begins with praising God here and everywhere and ends as all creation standing and singing aloud with joy the wonders of God’s name. It acts like a mirror that reflects or a window through which we see the beauty of God shining. In the midst of this praise, the psalm voices the reality of life experience also, an experience that is filled with both abundance and hardship acknowledging that both are part of the fabric of our life.
It is gratefulness of heart, learning to live from the experience of a grateful heart that opens us to all the many blessings that are absolutely essential to our lives. Frederick Buechner, a Presbyterian minister and theologian following a meditation of psalm 65 wrote: “Using the same old materials of earth, air, fire, and water, every twenty-four hours God creates something new out of them. If you think you’re seeing the same show all over again seven times a week, you’re crazy. Every morning you wake up to something that in all eternity never was before and never will be again. And the you that wakes up was never the same before and will never be the same again either.” There are so many experiences in life that I want to cry out “do it again” please do it again … and each time brings new depths of understanding, new opportunities for growth. According to Buechner, what was most important was our true calling or purpose, often wrapped up in the newness of an old disguise! He believes our true self is found at the intersection of “your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger.
The calendar quote for this month is a wonderful image – God crowning the year with abundance and gifts and paths that God creates overflowing with riches. Throughout the psalm, over and over again, I could imagine hearing a song that dawn and dusk, as they took turns, sang, calling ‘Come, and see this awesomeness, and praise the Maker’. It would be naïve or foolish to assume that the wagon tracks created were all smooth and without any hard work in navigating them! These wagon tracks overflow with richness, twists and turns, mountainous hills and steep valleys – filled with opportunities and experiences that cause change, growth, new life. It is a richness that cries out that we do not miss, are not blind to the very common and ordinary, difficult and challenging experiences along the pathways of our life. Therein lie new life and new growth, joy and singing and dancing. In the Message translation of psalm 65 there is a very moving couple of verses to this psalm that set us in the reality of life speaking of arriving “at Your doorstep sooner or later, loaded with guilt, too much for us but you get rid of them once and for all”. This psalm says it all when it says that the bounty and richness of God, the welcome and forgiving unconditional love of God is a source of wonder and awe, along the pathways.
I am reminded of several lines in one of the general thanksgiving prayers in the Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada (page 129)… “Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendour of the whole creation for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love. …for setting us tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us …for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone …”
Walter Brueggemann’s perspective on Psalm 65 is one that I have always found helpful. He points out that this psalm shows a movement from lament to praise, reflecting a journey of metanoia, a change of heart or of direction. He views the psalm as demonstrating God’s power of love that holds together both truth telling wisdom and abundant readiness, ultimately leading to a joyful celebration of God’s creative and redemptive acts. Brueggemann’s meditation on Psalm 65 highlights the vibrant play between uncertainty and redirection, a key theme in his understanding of the Psalms, all of which are powerfully rooted in the concrete experiences and social contexts in which we find ourselves.
Ours is a difficult task to live in this world in the midst of chaos and brokenness, anger and war with a balance that also acknowledges the beauty and goodness at the heart all of life, and to know and truth tell that God holds everything in God’s hands and heart, joining our rejoicing and our lamenting – in one unending song of joy.
A meditation hymn from Common Praise, Anglican Church of Canada #428
God who gives to life its goodness. God creator of all joy, giver of all human freedom,
God who blesses tool and toy: teach us now to laugh and praise you, deep withing your praises sing,
Till the whole creation dances for the goodness of its King.
God who fills the earth with beauty, God who binds each friend to friend, giver of all human talent,
God who wills that chaos end: grant us now creative spirits, minds responsive to your mind,
Hearts and wills your rule extending, all our acts by love refined.