Psalm 66:1-12

Pentecost +20 - Year C

Psalm 66:1-12

"The theme of this psalm is not obvious . . . .", The Jewish Study Bible. So we continue the mystery of dreams. "The exodus-conquest theme may hint at the theme of the return from exile and re-entrance to Judah (... a common symbol for the return in postexilic times...)", ibid.

Praise G*D.

1. We have been kept among the living while bad things happen to ordinary people.
   
2. We have been tested by fire.
   
3. We have been grounded like a bird in a net, trapped with no way out.
   
4. We have been subdued.

          - - - (dream-like jump) - - -

11. We have come to a spacious, prosperous place.

When we can't explain the various incongruities of life we are tempted to put it all on G*D - the pains and the joys, the testings and the blessings. None of this "proves" G*D. What lies behind our insistence on making sense of the world, even if it takes projecting experiences onto G*D? It would seem we are still in the midst of a dream.

Keep singing a better tomorrow. When we find ourselves there, perhaps then we will see beyond our multiplicities of experience and better understand this and other praise psalms.