Psalm 42

I have no great insight to add to the discussion of tsunamis and theodicy just a short reflection on humanity's intimate and ongoing struggle with God and with our selves.  Psalm 42 from Morning Prayer this morning captures this struggle.  First, the desire and need for God.  The Psalmist sings:  "Like a deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God.  My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life; when can I enter and see the face of God?"  He thirsts but falls into near despair in the face of this present reality:  "My tears have become my bread, by night, by day, as I hear it said all the day long:  'Where is your God?'"  In his emptiness, the Psalmist remembers and pours out his soul, desiring (if only he had the grace) to "lead the rejoicing crowd into the house of God, amid cries of gladness and thanksgiving."  For the Psalmist, questioning and hope follow:  "Why are you cast down, my soul, why groan within me?  Hope in God; I will praise him still, my savior and my God."  In this Psalm an interior stuggle follows.  The Psalmist knows God's love, remembers it, but cannot feel it as "Deep is calling on deep, in the roar of the waters: your torrents and all your waves are swept over me."  And, in an act of profound intimacy, the Psalmist confronts God:  "I will say to God, my rock:  "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go on mourning oppressed by the foe?"

Natural disasters like tsunamis, tornados, earthquakes, and hurricanes are much harder for me to fathom than human made disasters (given our fallen nature, free will and limited capacity), but I find comfort in the fact that our forbears even before the Incarnation (before the landlord moved in) struggled with these same questions and were on intimate enough terms with the Divine not to struggle alone.

Michael S.