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I’m okay with the first part, but the second part jolts me to question the Psalmist’s theology, and sobriety. “David, I think you mixed-up your thoughts here, bud. You’re right-on with “speaking God’s praises and blessing His holy Name for ever and ever,” but then you throw-in this flesh part. Flesh can’t bless anything but itself. It defines the “bad, ugly, fallen, sinful, wretched man am I” category. And it hates God and is rightfully opposed to blessing.  Yes, according to most pulpits and popular thought, but no, according to the whole of God’s word. Most of my days begin with The Divine Hours, joining myself to fixed prayers practiced throughout the ages.* And about the time I started wrestling with David’s seeming inebriations, the Hours had me repeating this appointed prayer for the week: O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. What’s being said here is extraordinary. Namely, that Jesus’ humanity doesn’t rupture his divinity, but rather, recapitulates what God foretold of humanity and divinity from the beginning. An infinite chasm fell between these identities, such that none could find, work, or fix his way to the other. For interaction to exist between them, then, a force of grace had to prevail. A justifying sacrifice had to intervene. A flesh and blood divinity had to repave humanities way. Immanuel** had to invite restoration—man’s flesh to restored union with the Divine. Yes, our human nature falls infinitely short of its divine existence. And yes, our flesh impairs the lens by which we see every waking moment. But no, this wasn’t a blip on God’s radar screen. He created and He creates, and more wonderfully, He restored and is still restoring. Until we believe that every part of us can bless God, we’re living a half-truth. Until we believe the flesh of days, as much as the radiance of them has potential to radiate and receive Divine love, we’re inebriated in a false theology. May the dignity of our human nature never be taken for granted. Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. *For centuries, (based on Psalm 119.64: “Seven times a day do I praise you”) Jews and Christians have practiced fixed hours of prayer. It’s referenced by various titles, like “praying the hours,” or “the daily offices,” and in The Divine Hours, Phyllis Tickle has complied a rich manual for this practice. **God with us. |
