The Third Sunday after Pentecost

The juxtaposition of today’s Psalm with our Epistle reading is one of those times when the lectionary hits upon one of the some of our most human emotions. “Out of the depths I have called to you.” I’m not sure there is more succinct verse to describe how we feel some days. The depths are this almost mythical place, filled with unimaginable things and is nearly indescribable, not unlike saying the bottom of the ocean where we are experiencing crushing pressures, a breath of air seems miles away, and all light is gone. Can we get out of there? Can we just say a quick prayer and change our outlook? The Psalmist is so very real in describing the reality of this situation and where we must find not a quick fix but hope; “I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him… more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.” That repeated line drives home our desire for safety, for hope to be fully realized, for the terrors of night to be chased away by the breaking dawn. And this is the hope that we must rest on; not a quick fix but an ultimate hope.

It’s not hard to see how this Psalm speaks to the church in Corinth as well. Paul encourages a church that is experiencing suffering and difficulty, a church that is in the depths and is yearning for morning, “we do not lose heart…we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen.” Paul encourages this church with hope, with the reality of an eternity that will fully realize God to as, just as the tent of the Tabernacle the Israelites carried around before they were brought to their true home was replaced by the stones of the Temple, as Paul hints at with that image in our passage. Just like the Corinthians, we are all waiting for the morning, when we will finally be truly home. May it come quickly!

— Evan Bassler