When troubled, take time to ponder

I tried to be a meditator, but it did not work for me. I guess I am not the right type. However, I am an addicted ponderer. I sit around and think about things. I consider this to be a part of essential Christian practice. Paul gives us good advice (Philippians 4:8) “…if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things.”

Seriously thinking about things is a powerful part of the tradition of Judaism. The Ten Commandments and the laws of God may find their roots in Moses, but the roots of pondering is more specifically found in the small band of Israelites, who were carried off into captivity by the Babylonians in the early 6th century BCE. Those who were carried off into that captivity were the intellectual leaders of the defeated Israelites. They were held as slaves in a small area of Babylon. Many scholars believe this was the first known ghetto in western history.

Consider their plight. They no longer had a nation. They had lost their capitol, their land, and worst of all, their temple. The guidance of Mosaic law and the power of the Davidic kingdom were long gone, far beyond any hope of recovery. As intellectuals they had been reduced to slave laborers. What could they do in such circumstances? They did a lot of pondering.

Out of this period in Israelite history we have received some of the best thinking ever done in western civilization.

The Babylonian captivity is the setting of what we now call Psalm 8. My favorite Psalm is 23, but Psalm 8 is a close second. As a community of thinkers, this small band of Israelites turned their attention to the vast heavens of the moon, the sun and the stars. They credited the finger of God as the creator of everything that they saw. In reality they had no way of knowing that what they saw was a small part of the vastness of the universes of which we are now aware.

Great poetry has a way of putting things into perspective. Poetry does not have to deal with numbers and facts. Great poetry speaks truth and thoughtful people realize that truth has been spoken. This band of powerless slaves pondered the heavens and knew how pitiful the powers of their captors actually were.

I am a devout follower of Jesus from Nazareth. A careful look at the teachings of Jesus reveals his dependence upon the writings of the Israelites of the captivity. Jesus never took seriously the vast power of the Romans or their Jewish puppets, who controlled the Jerusalem Temple. He too looked at the heavens and understood the puny power of the Roman Empire.

I have long believed that when Jesus withdrew from his followers into privacy, he did two things. He prayed to his Father in heaven and he pondered. The captives of Babylon gave us sublime poetry. Jesus, out of his ponderings gave us his parables.

I have spent a good deal of time looking at the heavens. The known vastness of the universes is truly mind-boggling. I find myself reduced to a tiny, insignificant, temporal accident in the endless ocean of life. How can I ever take myself or any other human being seriously?

The writer of Psalm 8 takes an enormous leap. It is a leap of faith. He embraces the belief in a creator God. Then he asks the great question of Israelite/Christian faith: “What are human beings that God should be mindful of them, mortals that God should care about them?”

The Psalmist continues that God has made human beings little less than Gods and gave them real responsibilities as human beings. Could this be true for a relatively small group of slaves in a foreign land with no hope of recovering status or importance?

The response of the Psalmist is a burst of praise: “O Lord God, how majestic is your name in all the earth.”

The response of Jesus was to bring hope to every poor, downtrodden person who lived in Galilee in northern Palestine.

The Psalmist raises the same question in every generation: “What are human beings?” In our own generation how will we respond to that question? When I ponder that question in the vastness of the universes, I too take a leap of faith and believe that every human being has been created little less than Gods and has been given responsibilities in our own generation.

If you have not read Psalm 8, I suggest you do so. Read it first through the eyes of a small group of slaves that ordinarily would be seen as hopeless. Then read it again through your own eyes and apply it to life in our universe today. As a next step, take some time to ponder the message of the Psalm. The message and meaning is timeless.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net. This column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications.