Engulfed

It is the darkest psalm in the Bible, anguished from start to finish. God is hidden and silent; the singer is terrified, abandoned, engulfed by despair.

Your terrors surround me like a flood;

they have completely engulfed me.

You have taken my companions and loved ones from me;

darkness is my closest friend.

Psalm 88:14-18

Like being lost at sea in thick fog, these deep-water terrors describe clinical depression - an ordeal of extreme mental suffering and hopelessness.

We might wonder what a poem like this is doing in a book of faith like the Bible.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Water is nature’s first mirror. It reflects mountains, trees and sky

to create some of creation's most evocative art. 


Water photo-copies the reality around it and mirrors it back to us with fresh perspective and insight.

In Aesop’s fable, a dog with a bone sees his reflection in the river; greedy for the bone in that other dog’s mouth, the dog barks – and his bone drops into the river. It's not just a story about dumb dogs, it’s a cautionary tale about human greed.

The classics also tell about Narcissus who fell in love with his own image in water and became incapable of loving anyone else – a warning about the paralysis of vanity and self-absorption.

Water Into Fine Wine

I spent the week-end cleaning old wine bottles in preparation for filling them this week.

Water is a great cleaning agent, but it has even nobler roles in the world of wine.

For Better or Worse . . .
It was a wedding host’s worst nightmare - and a bad omen for the marriage. At mid-point in the reception, the wine ran out. The celebration sagged and the guests would soon start leaving. It smacked of bad planning, embarrassing poverty or, worse, shabby hospitality.

Enter the mystery guest. Without fanfare, almost before anyone knew what had happened, Jesus replenished the depleted store of wine, and the party continued.


Water, Love and Marriage

This third post on Water, Love and Marriage is a strange but beautiful picture of a bride getting cleaned up for her wedding – and surprisingly, it’s the bridegroom himself, at enormous personal cost and sacrifice, who bathes her and dresses her in dazzling silk.

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. . . so she might be unstained, without wrinkle or any other blemish.   Ephesians 5:25-27

My good friend Glenn Smith in Montreal, says that Canadians have a hard time grasping this vibrant water metaphor. Canada has an abundance of water - 7 percent of the world's renewable supply of freshwater and 20 percent of Earth’s frozen freshwater locked in glaciers and the polar ice cap.

Dance With the One Who Brung Ya

In keeping with my Water and Marriage theme of the week – my anniversary being tomorrow, it’s not just Shania Twain who sings about staying with the one who brought her to the dance.

The ancient wisdom of Israel also recognized the folly of infidelity. (Proverbs 5:15-17)

Drink water from your own cistern,

running water from your own well.

Should your springs overflow in the streets,

your streams of water in the public squares?

Let them be yours alone,

never to be shared with strangers.

This proverb knows how enticing forbidden love can be; it urges us to guard our hearts and marriage, to resist the beguiling call to squander our sexual energies with strangers. Seeking intimacy outside your marriage is sure to ruin the dance, foul the well or rot the staves of your rain-barrel.

Many Waters Cannot Quench Love

Four years ago this week . . . Tiffany and I exchanged vows of marriage, vows of life-long devotion to each other.

Our ceremony included these words about water and love from Song of Solomon 8:7:

Many waters cannot quench love;

Neither can floods drown it.

Lots of water has streamed under our bridge since then, but it has not quenched the joy or love in our hearts.

Fresh Rain

It’s every teacher’s dream . . .  her students soaking up inspired teaching like thirsty grass.

Parents and poets and preachers have the same hope and dream. Nothing sweeter than hungry minds feasting on your words - that’s why we talk and write.


Moses was a teacher. He spent a lifetime walking with God – decades beyond his burning bush experience – not just talking his faith, but living it, modeling it in the rough and tumble of unfolding history. Now as a farewell gift to his people he wrote a song - Deuteronomy 32 - about the timeless ways and love of God.

Buried Alive - Almost!

Photo Courtesy of BBC News

In honor of 33 Chile miners and their families . . .

As one man after another emerged from a shaft in the dark earth and embraced his loved ones, we all choked back tears of joy.

Trapped so deep under bed-rock and then, against all hope, plucked from the grave - it must seem for them like being resurrected from death.

"Deep calls to deep", the poet wrote. Something deep within us connected us to these men and their families - the drama of rescue, the relief of not being buried alive. But there is something more. The human soul is a deep and mysterious like a gold-mine or a deep-water aquifer.

Thanksgiving

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.

His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1

Tiffany and I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving on Saturday, leisurely canoeing a stretch of the Grand River south of Kitchener under a cloudless sky.

We confirmed the great exultation “the earth is full of God’s unfailing love” especially the trees, radiant in October extravaganza, displaying God’s majesty in orange, ruby and gold, mirrored in the river inviting us to join their 'Ode to Joy' in awe and gratitude.

Serenity

"You have made us for yourself

and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

Augustine, 398 CE



Photo "The Shepard" by  Floriana Barbu

The shepherd-poet David describes this God-given rest from anxiety and fear through the metaphor of a sheep quietly grazing under the watchful care of the shepherd.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside quiet waters,

He restores my soul.

Psalm 23:2-3

Pastures and streams provide the essentials - food and drink - for sheep. After grazing in the meadow sheep lie down to ruminate – their appetite contented and their security protected by the vigilant shepherd. It’s a picture of shalom.

If the early morning grass is dew-laden, the sheep have no need for streams, but the sun in Palestine can burn off the dew quickly and then sheep need additional water.

The shepherd leads his flock to still waters where it is easy for them to drink. Satisfaction, tranquility, peace.

River of Joy

Israel’s Psalm 46 is a study in contrasts. It begins with mountains collapsing into violent seas and then quickly changes to a cityscape graced by a peaceful river.

Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

Interlude 

A river brings joy to the city of our God,

the sacred home of the Most High.

God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed.

Many cities are defined by a river – think of the Thames in London, the Seine flowing through Paris, New York’s Hudson or Montreal on the St. Lawrence.

Impressive cities, impressive water-ways, natural beauty and economic engines. But Jerusalem has no river.

The only naturally occurring water Jerusalem enjoys, besides rain, is the Gihon spring on the east and the tiny conduit that carries its water into the city to the pool of Siloam. It’s barely a stream, how could such a river be a source of joy?

Fearless at the Cliff Edge

On a stormy winter night in 1639, the residents of Dunluce Castle on the coast of Northern Ireland were entertaining neighbors.

Dunluce is Gaelic for “strong fort” - and doubly strong it was even as the raging sea clawed at the basalt cliff on which the 12th century castle was built.

The surf pounded the rock that night until without warning the cliff-face crumbled and the kitchen wing of the castle collapsed into the sea plunging servants to their death.

Storm Master

In March 1992, ten foot waves crashed into downtown Tiberius on the shore of Lake Galilee, causing significant damage.

As lakes go, Galilee isn’t very large – 13 miles long and 8 miles wide, but violent storms can erupt very quickly as cool air rushes down from the adjacent mountains – the Arbel on the west, seen in the photo here, and the Golan Heights 1200 meters above the lake on the east .

The disciples were seasoned fisherman familiar with the lake’s turbulent ways. They knew how to handle her storms. On one occasion, Jesus was asleep in the boat when the winds hit.