"The Voice of the Lord" (Psalm 29)

Avoiding What Needs to Be Done 

I have one friend who complains about the pile of mail that sits on her kitchen counter, waiting to be opened. Another friend who confesses in a slightly guilty tone about the daunting pile of laundry that he always postpones washing longer than he should. And yet another friend who laments the pile of junk growing in his garage, needing to be taken to the recycling center and the dump. All of which leads me to suspect that, for all of us, there is a pile of something somewhere with our name on it.

I say this somewhat facetiously to get at the serious truth that, from time to time, there is something we know needs to be done and yet we avoid doing it. Maybe it’s not the mail or the laundry. Maybe it’s a difficult conversation. Maybe it’s a major change in our diet. Maybe it’s owning up to a behavior that’s hurting ourselves or others. Whatever it is, it will not leave us alone. It gnaws at the edges of our consciousness. It tugs at our heart. We can put it off, sure, it’s at our own risk. For denying it or delaying it is likely to cause it to come out sideways, whether in a burst of anger or a midnight panic or just a slow withdrawal from life.

Racing out of Control

I have a recurring dream that visits me whenever life gets stormy. In the dream, I’m racing on the road, weaving in and out of traffic, always accelerating. (Lest I give the wrong impression that I’m a speed demon on the road, that this dream is a form of wish fulfillment, let me emphatically reject the idea! Although I suppose one could argue my unconscious is having its say….) I have never wrecked in one of these dreams, yet they are terrifying. I wake up frantic, fearful, my heart racing.

As this dream generally visits me in seasons of anxiety, where much is going on and much is uncertain, I take it to be a reminder of what I need. Which is to slow down. Or in the words of Psalm 46, “Be still.” Or, as those same Hebrew words are occasionally used to refer to the slackening of the hands, they could be translated, “Let go.” Down your tools. Step back from your plans. Indeed, it is often the case that my racing anxiety is the result of too many calculations, too many expectations, not enough listening, not enough trust.

I suppose what I mean to say is that sometimes what needs to be done and yet I avoid doing, is not a particular activity but rather a cessation of activity. I am reminded of what Francis de Sales, a sixteenth-century church leader, once said. “Every one of us needs half an hour of prayer every day, except when we are busy—then we need a full hour.”

Of Chaos and Creation

The storm at the center of today’s scripture has led some scholars to speculate that its origins are Canaanite. The Canaanite god Baal is commonly depicted as a storm god, whose voice is like thunder. But even if Psalm 29 was originally written as a song in praise of Baal, it has clearly been edited and repurposed for the faith of Israelites—not unlike how the winter solstice was adapted and repurposed for the Christian celebration of God’s incarnation in the birth of Christ.

Indeed, the psalm now evokes the scene of creation in Genesis 1. Just as the spirit (or wind) of God swept over the face of the primeval waters at the very start of creation (Gen 1:2), so “the voice of the Lord is over the waters” at the start of our psalm (Ps 29:3). In the ancient Near East, water was symbolic for the murky, undifferentiated chaos from which creation emerges. Imagine a storm at sea. That is the biblical image for chaos, the world from which God draws forth creation. In today’s psalm, God is depicted as “over the waters,” and not just that but “over mighty waters” (Ps 29:3). God is depicted as “enthroned over the flood” (Ps 29:10). The psalmist makes it abundantly clear that chaos does not have the upper hand, even when things get stormy.

But God’s power over chaos is not combat, as it is in Canaanite religion. No, God’s creative power over chaos is the same here as it is in Genesis. It is in the word. Repeatedly the psalmist refers to “the voice of the Lord” as what shapes the elements of chaos—breaking, quaking, shaking, whirling, stripping. In case there’s any doubt that our psalm intends to evoke the scene of creation from Genesis 1, where God’s word draws forth creation from chaos, we might take note of how many times “the voice of the Lord” issues in our psalm. Seven times.

The Trinity as Relationship

Today is Trinity Sunday, which always falls one week after Pentecost, when we celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit among the church community. It is an appropriate progression, reminding us what the Holy Spirit is about. The Holy Spirit is not a superpower. It’s not like the radioactive spider whose bite turns Peter Benjamin Parker into Spiderman or the radioactive muck that transforms four sewer turtles into vigilante ninjas. The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. And the Trinity, whatever else it is, is relationship. The Trinity shows us that God is never an isolated individual, but always already in relationship. God, Christ, Spirit. Father, Son, Holy Ghost. These figures of our faith represent God in relationship. They depict God in dialogue. Indeed, Christ is the Word made flesh (cf. John 1), which is another way of saying that God is the Call and Christ is the Response. And what else is the Holy Spirit but the Conversation, where Call joins with Response?

The gospel of John insists that the Word was “in the beginning” and that “all things came into being through [the Word]” (John 1:2-3). Which suggests that the Trinity is at the heart of creation. That Christ, the Response to God’s Call, is at the heart of creation. Is this not what we see at the beginning of Genesis and also in today’s psalm? At the heart of creation is “the voice of the Lord” and a response. Call and response. “Let there be…and there was….” “Let the earth bring forth vegetation,” and “the earth”—responding to God’s call—“brought forth vegetation” (Gen 1:11-12).

God’s power over chaos, over the murky, primeval waters, is not combat. It is call and response. Conversation, dialogue, relationship. And thus from the chaos comes creation. From the storm comes something good, very good.

Giving Us Strength, Bringing Us Peace

What creation shows us, I think, is that the Trinity is not a closed circle. All of creation is invited into the relationship that is God. We are invited into the call and response, “Let there be…and there was….” Jesus models this for us. Jesus shows us what it looks like when God’s call meets with human response, when God’s word finds flesh.

The end of today’s psalm indicates that the God whose word calls forth goodness from chaos, gives us strength and peace (Ps 29:11). To respond to God’s call, to be in relationship with God as Jesus was, gives us strength and peace. I think this is true. I have noticed that when I’m avoiding what I know needs to be done, the storm intensifies. But when I respond to the call—whether that’s to have a conversation or make a needed change or just to own up to a hurtful reality—when I respond to the call, there is a sense of calm, even in the storm. Just a few chapters later, the psalmist celebrates this calm in the storm, which he experiences after confessing his sin: “Let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them” (Ps 32:6). It’s almost as if responding to God’s call draws forth something new and good from among the chaos. Almost as if “the voice of the Lord” really is “over mighty waters” (Ps 29:3).

I don’t mean to focus on what we are avoiding or say that we need to do everything we don’t want to do. I only mean to say this, “Listen closely to your life.” Because I believe God is speaking to us. Perhaps especially on the edges of chaos, where we feel overwhelmed. I can’t say specifically what God is calling you to do. But I see all over scripture, all over the history of our faith, that God’s call empowers people of faith to draw forth goodness from the storm. And I see also that God’s call often begins with a “Be still!” A “Let go!” That God’s call often is not for a particular activity, but for a cessation of activity. And a trust that the chaos, the storm, “the rush of mighty waters,” doesn’t have the final word. “The voice of the Lord” is “over mighty waters” (Ps 29:3). Jesus is in the boat with his followers, to give us strength, to bring us peace...to invite us to join God in drawing forth good from the chaos.

Prayer

Creator, Christ, Spirit,
Whose power is relationship,
Call and response,
Not in a closed circle,
But with all creation—
Help us to be still,
To listen for your voice over mighty waters
…
And never to give up responding,
For in your Trinity, your circle, your family which is our family,
We find strength and peace;
We find goodness drawn from the chaos.
In Christ, crucified and yet risen: Amen.