"Love...holding me in its power."
Nan Merrill (+2010) has written a book titled: Psalms for Praying, An Invitation to Wholeness. Here is a brief review of the book giving a sense of what the author has done for us.
The Psalms are the oldest prayers in the Judeo-Christian tradition. There are 150 of them, and they were written for a variety of occasions. They remain popular as devotional resources because they speak to us cogently about the human condition. The Psalms express the hopes and fears, the gratitude and the anger, the joy and the sadness that we all experience at one time or another.
This paperback is the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Nan Merrill's Psalms for Praying, and the author has made some revisions. She has recast all 150 Psalms in poetic form and sees them as a companion to use with those in the Hebrew Scripture. Merrill hopes that these prayers will also be used to awaken us to love, silence, peace, wholeness, and acts of justice, mercy and compassion. In times of war, these cries from the heart become even more poignant.
Here is the author's poetic recasting of Psalm 16 — A Psalm of Confidence and True Happiness. My own verse-by-verse thoughts follow.
1 Remain ever before me
O Living Presence,
for in You am I safe.
2You are my Beloved; in You
and through You I can do all things.
3 I look to those who are at one
with You and learn
from them of your ways;
4 My delight increases each time
I sense your Presence within me!
Songs of praise well up from my heart!
5 Love is my chosen food, my cup,
holding me in its power.
6 Where I have come from,
Where're I shall go,
Love is my birthright,
my true estate.
7 I bless the Counselor who guides my way;
in the night also does my heart instruct me.
8 I walk beside the Spirit of Truth;
I celebrate the Light.
I bask in the Oneness of All!
9 Thus my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
I shall not be afraid,
nor fall into the pit of despair;
For in Love's presence I know the fullness of joy.
10 You are my Beloved and, in You
will I live forever!
Verse 1: A purist might say, "The traditional psalm doesn't use the term "Living Presence." OK, but have I ever named God for myself, or do I only use the words of other people? Do we use the word God so easily that it's almost a throwaway word? Here Nan Merrill has thoughtfully given God a new name — "O Living Presence." The little sound-word "O" expresses wonderment. In a scary, dangerous world, I can feel safe in this sure Presence.
Verse 2: Here again, the poet-author gives God another name. "Beloved.." And when I live with and in the Beloved, not only do I feel safe, but I feel encouraged and strengthened. Indeed, "I can do all things." How fitting for folks who feel disempowered, degraded, ignored, self-doubting, insecure.
Verse 3: The psalmist is a communal person. We don't live spiritually in isolation. "I look to those who are at one with You." Who might these be? The saints, surely. But also the un-canonized holy and good ones I have met along the way.
Verse 4: "Delight increases within me." Does the word delight express my personal religious/spiritual world? How does this delight in God's Presence find expression in my life?
Verse 5: This is interesting — I think the author has again re-named God. Here she calls God simply Love. God who is Love, is like food and drink to me. A necessity. My sustenance. This Love is a power which holds me. I'm thinking of the icon of the Cambrai Mother of God above (c.1340) holding the Infant Christ who is squirming and climbing up the front of the Holy Mother pulling on her veil and holding her chin with his right hand. The icon's unspoken message seems gives expression: This is how you are loved—God is climbing all over us or climbing over all the obstacles of history (global and personal) to get to us in love.
Verse 6: "Where I have come from...Where'er I go..." Of course, I think of my parents, but I also remember when I was in my forties and went back to the Bronx to stand by and touch the marble Baptismal font where my parents brought me as a newborn. We have all come from a Baptismal font as the siblings of Jesus. And again, the trillion, trillion, trillion coincidences that have brought me to today and just as wondrously to tomorrow for the rest of my life.
Verse 7: A traditional translation would say, "God who gives me counsel." Nan Merrill says more simply and as a way of giving God a new name, "I bless the Counselor." And what a lovely thought, that this good Counselor instructs my heart even in the night while I sleep. But the "night" can also be the world's darkness. Even then, God teaches me how to go. Am I a good heart-learner?
Verse 8: "The spirit of Truth." But truth isn't just new information about God, something that's accomplished because I've read the right books or listened to the latest expert. The truth is the truth of God's love seen in Christ. I want to live that kind of authentic life—my own unique life lived fully as Christ lived his. That's what it is to live in the Light.
Verse 9:You see here — the godly way is a way of gladness and rejoicing. It dispels fear which gives birth to despair, anger, resentment, hatred, even violence and wars. Here again, the author calls God simply, "Love." And this love gives cause for full joy. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, "There is no such thing as a sad Christian."
Verse 10: God again is called "Beloved." Maybe that's the promise of eternity, living forever in love — given and received. Isn't that what we all long for — to love and to be loved?
