GREETINGS, FRIENDS.
July hopefully finds you with lingering moments to enjoy this breathtakingly beautiful world we indwell, in solitude or surrounded by people you love. Wherever you are, take a moment to look up and breath deeply God’s creational glory. Seventeenth-century rabbi, Yechiel Michel Halevi Epstein, recommended we gaze up at the sky daily to remind ourselves of the sacredness of all Creation. He wrote:
“When you get up, look out your window at the sky and the earth and recall the verse, 'Lift up your eyes on high and see -- who created all this?' (Isaiah 40:26). And think, 'How many are your works, YHVH, with wisdom have You made them all; the earth is full of Your creations' (Psalm 104:24). Think of how wonderful Creation is, the sky and the earth and all that is in them — plants, animals, humans, creatures great and wonderful.”
Please savor selections from Psalm 104 below as well as a poem by Luci Shaw written amidst the pandemic, inviting us to “look up” and be reminded of the loving kindness of the Lord.
-Christy Yates, Associate Director
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.
He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved…
How many are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.-selections from Psalm 104, NIV
How? - Poem by Luci Shaw
How shall we sing the Lord’s songs
in a strange land? The old rhythms,
the melodies of praise, strangle
in our throats and the words
fall to the ground like leaves in autumn.
The air thickens with suspicion and doubt
and who’s to say anymore, what
is true enough to last, to prevail?
Isolation feels like a punishment
for offenses we never performed.
Let us trust, now, the ground under
our feet—that which has proven steady
for generations. Look up. The heavens
are still there, unclouded, beatific.
We breathe, even though masks clothe
our faces. Prayer surrounds us, close
as our skin, weaving for us garments of
trust and solace. Even in our isolation
we are joined in love, never alone.
photo credit: Ashley Brooks, Essex, MA