Covered

A Reflection on the Psalm for March 20th, 2022:
Third Sunday of Lent

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Psalm 103

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits. 

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious.

It is the Lord who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. 

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious.

The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. 

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. 

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious.

Bless the Lord is the beginning.
 

David is standing somewhere singing this psalm. He starts with singing to himself. He needs to tell his very soul what to do: bless the Lord. By the end of the song he will be telling all of heaven and Earth to join him: Bless the Lord!
 

There are twenty-two verses in his song; there are twenty-two letters in his alphabet. He wants his soul and the sand he stands on to know that these words are true in every moment. Seven times he sings the word “bless” in this song he has given breath to. Seven, the number of perfection. Seven times bless ... barukh ... is carried on the wind.



How can I bless the Maker of all blessing? How can I bless the King who blesses me by extending His grace over me like a cloak? What can I extend to cover Him with? I am too small. Buried in David’s word barukh is a word he learned on his mother’s knee — his mother’s berekh. It is not standing He calls his soul to, but kneeling. He calls his soul, the angels, the sea, you and me to revel in our smallness and bow before Him, beside Him, covered by Him.
 

Recall what He does. Forgives. Heals. Redeems. Crowns. Works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. Really? That last one. Look around here. Really? Why can’t I see it, this justice? There is a voice in my soul that sings, “Where are You? Why don’t You do something?”
 

David anchored this assertion of justice in reality. In the history of His people. Moses’ life. David’s own life. Mine. At any slice, any single cross-section of our story, it may seem that God is missing. Israel making bricks without straw. Moses on the run for murder. David hiding in a cave. Me hearing the voice of a grandmother challenging a soldier with sunflower seeds.
 

I am too small to see over the edge. Standing on tippy toes doesn’t help, so I kneel instead before and beside my Lord, covered by Him. Just because I can’t see His love doesn’t mean it’s not there. Subterranean and surfacing grace. The River is always there. No matter what it looks like in the moment.
 

Exclaim who He is. Merciful. Gracious. Slow to anger. Abounding in love.
 

I join David and sing over all the voices within my soul, until they can join together in one song:
Bless the Lord!




Noreen Smith

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