This psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving for deliverance, giving praise to God for all that He has done. Those who have been redeemed and rescued by God are encouraged to share their testimonies with thankful hearts of praise towards God’s enduring love. It recounts how God has cared for and provided for people in trouble. This chorus of voices provides encouragement and hope, across the spectrum of human diversity, and helps our communities to unify around the goodness of God.

Yet, as we listen to the stories of others, we also wrestle with situations in which there has been no healing, no peace, no relief in times of trouble. It can be easy to turn away from these accounts and to seek to bury the doubts within ourselves whenever we or those whom we love experience dark nights of the soul.

There are no easy answers, which I believe is why the Bible, and indeed the book of Psalms itself, includes a range of writings across the peaks and troughs of our experiences and our emotional lives. Our lament is validated, and our joy at God’s goodness is enriched through our experiences of mercy. By testifying to the faithfulness we have encountered, we bear witness to Christ, expressing our gifts and how God has worked – and is continuing to work – in each of our lives.

The world can be a scary place, yet we can exercise a resilient resistance through our hope in God, through our belief that it is only love that will have the last word, as we recognise that each person has inherent dignity through having been made in the image of God. In the New Testament reading for this week, the book of Colossians again reminds us that, in Christ, “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free”. If Paul was writing to our churches today, perhaps he would have reminded us that Christ deeply loves Palestinians and Israelis, LGBTQIA+, heterosexual and cisgender* people, those who live in Castle Hill and those who live in Mount Druitt, children and elderly people.

In a polarised world, the church is a sacred space not only where we encounter God, but through community, we recognise that all people have value which has been bestowed upon them not through their own doing, but because of God’s grace. We have the opportunity to spur each other on in faithfulness and love, listening to one another’s stories, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice.

[* cisgender—agreeing with their physical gender, as opposed to transgender]

Blessings. - Pastor Abbey