Psalm 27

Lent 2 - Year C 

Psalm 27

Where does one turn for a source of comfort and safety when external or internal threats arise? The Psalmist finds their confidence in a context of beauty and inquiry (v. 4).

These gifts of seeking beyond and beneath the surface for context and process lifts a weary or tortured head. Ongoing inquiry and instances of beauty set an openness to actually hear a response to a plea for perspective and plan to move forward.

To see ourselves as fundamentally beloved takes more than being a reflection of who others see us to be (too often as a slave or extension of them). With beauty and inquiry we find our own will and way. Even in the face of violence we can see the goodness of what we mean by “G*D” and our own participation in a larger creation.

We hear of “waiting for the Lord” through “strength” and “courage” (v 14). There is not more strength needed for nor received from an engagement with “beauty” and “inquiry”. Likewise, courage is not found in pulled bootstraps, but in simply following a crack of hope revealed by “inquiry” and “beauty” still present in an oppressive setting. Waiting is not passivity, but active openness to inquiry beyond our certainty or other-definition of self and appreciation of moments or extended experiences of beauty emerging from beneath fear, like grass growing through cement.