Spiritual writer Joyce Rupp understands all of creation as part of a “cosmic dance”:
No one person has been able to fully communicate this amazing dance of life to me, but Thomas Merton comes close with his description in New Seeds of Contemplation. Merton’s use of the phrase “cosmic dance” set my heart singing. When I read it, I felt my early childhood experience [in nature] of the inner dance being echoed and affirmed:
When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash—at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the “newness,” the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance. [1]
Rupp continues:
The soul of the world and our own souls intertwine and influence one another. There is one Great Being who enlivens the dance of our beautiful planet and everything that exists. The darkness of outer space, the greenness of our land and the blue of our seas, the breath of every human and creature, all are intimately united in a cosmic dance of oneness with the Creator’s breath of love. [2]
Rupp celebrates the restoration that takes place by her conscious participation in the dance:
There is such power in the cosmic dance. Each time I resonate with this energy I sink into my soul and find a wide and wondrous connection with each part of my life. I come home to myself, feeling welcomed and restored to kinship with the vast treasures of Earth and Universe. I am re-balanced between hope and despair, slowed down in my greedy eagerness to accomplish and produce no matter the cost to my soul, beckoned to sip of the flavors of creation in order to nourish my depths….
Whenever and however I join with the cosmic dance, it jogs my memory and gives me a kind of “second sight,” a glimpse of the harmony and unity that is much deeper and stronger than the forces of any warring nation or individual. My trust that good shall endure is deepened. My joy of experiencing beauty is strengthened. My resolve to continually reach out beyond my own small walls is renewed. The energy that leaps and twirls in each part of existence commands my attention and draws me into a cosmic embrace. I sense again the limitless love that connects us all. I come home to that part of myself that savors kinship, births compassion, and welcomes tenderness. I re-discover that I am never alone. Always the dance joins me to what “is.”
==========================>
| Psalm 137: The Terrible Fate of Every Babylon |
 Click Here for AudioYesterday, we examined the covenant faithfulness of God. Over and over, Psalm 136 declares that “YHWH’s hesed endures forever.” Hesed is the Hebrew word meaning “loyal-love” and refers to God’s unwavering commitment to his people. But in Psalm 137 we are jolted by a very different message. The writer describes weeping, sorrow, and anger along the rivers of Babylon. It’s a scene of God’s people living in exile after the destruction of Jerusalem. If the Lord’s loyal-love endures forever, if his covenant with his people cannot be broken, then why are they weeping? Why has the land he promised them been overtaken by outsiders? Why has Jerusalem and YHWH’s temple been destroyed? And why have God’s chosen people been taken as captives to a foreign land? Reading Psalms 136 and 137 together provokes troubling theological and moral questions. I suspect that was the intent of placing these psalms side by side.Reading Psalm 137 by itself, however, produces a different set of confusing questions. The dominant emotion of the Psalm is anger. God’s people are outraged at what the Babylonians have done to their homeland, they vow never to forget the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Psalm concludes with the hope that one day Babylon will be destroyed in return. The final line is perhaps the darkest verse in the Psalms: “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”We have already explored how to read and apply Psalms of vengeance, and why we should understand them as descriptive rather than prescriptive. (I won’t repeat the details here but I suggest reading the devotionals for Psalm 109 and Psalm 123 in the With God Daily archives.) Psalm 137 also fits into this category, but there is an important New Testament parallel we should not overlook. In the book of Revelation, Babylon is used to symbolize the ungodly and unjust empires of the world who oppose Jesus and persecute his faithful followers. In a passage that echoes the cry of Psalm 137, we hear a voice calling for God to punish Babylon. “Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double what she has done…. Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself” (Revelation 18:6-7).Revelation uses the Old Testament story of the Babylonian invasion and exile as an archetype. In every generation, there is always a Babylon—an evil empire that dehumanizes, exploits, persecutes, and crushes the weak and vulnerable. And in every generation, God’s people will cry out for his vengeance against this injustice. While Psalm 137 offers no resolution to the rampaging evil of Babylon, Revelation does: “Rejoice over her, you heavens! Rejoice, you people of God!… For God has judged her with the judgments she imposed on you” (Revelation 18:20). DAILY SCRIPTURE PSALM 137:1-9 REVELATION 18:1-8 WEEKLY PRAYER. Alcuin of York (735 – 804) Eternal Light, shine into our hearts, eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil, eternal Power, be our support, eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance, eternal Pity, have mercy upon us; that with all our heart and mind and soul and strength we may seek your face and be brought by your infinite mercy to your holy presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
