Monday, June 22, 2020
![menora-tekes-mica-2[1]](https://thenoontimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/menora-tekes-mica-21.jpg?w=300&h=274)
In Evil Days
This Psalm is full of advice about how we are to calm our fears, unburden our hearts and unbend our stiff necks. It is a practical list of specific strategies for a universal audience . . . rich and poor alike!
My lips will speak words of wisdom. My heart is full of insight. How does the psalmist arrive at such understanding and perception?
I will turn my mind to a parable . . . Story telling is a popular pastime in a culture in which most of the population is uneducated and beyond their entertainment value, parables are used to instruct the illiterate using the technique of comparison to teach. As we read, hear or form parables of our own the burden of our worries lifts.
With a harp I will solve my problems . . . Music soothes the soul, as we know, and the ancient Hebrew people understood this. The harp and flute were used in ancient cultures to both entertain and to quiet the soul. Saul calls for David and his harp when he is troubled (1 Samuel 16:23). There are at more than a dozen references to praising God with the harp in Scripture and here the psalmist calls for the use of its comforting tones. As we sing to God and praise God’s wisdom and power and goodness the problems that besieged us begin to dissolve.
Why should I fear in evil days the malice of the foes who surround me, men who trust their wealth and boast of the vastness of their riches . . . Finally the psalmist tackles problems common to all humanity from the earliest stories in our culture to the present day: envy, greed, pride, an attitude of self-sufficiency, a desire to control. As we come to realize that no one – not even the super-rich – can avoid the great equalizer, death, we find new energy and rise to new life.
But God will ransom me from the netherworld; he will take me to himself . . . The Old Testament psalmist foretells the coming of Christ with his story of healing, restoration and resurrection. The psalmist assures us that as we come to fully understand that God alone creates and God alone saves, nothing that takes place in evil days will be able to strip the promise of life eternal from us.
And so we pray . . .
Eternal and powerful God, open our hearts to receive your wisdom as we sing your praise with harp and flute.
Loving and healing Christ, open our minds to your parables that teach us how to flourish as we grow and blossom with your wisdom and insight.
Abiding and consoling Spirit, open our souls to your loving presence as we learn to abide only in you.
Amen.
To sooth the soul that struggles to survive evil days, watch a video produced for the King David Museum about how Harrari harps are made in the manner that David himself employed, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO5uA-IPV0E
For lessons about the harp and the flute by musicologist Rabbi David Louis and the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, Israel, watch the following videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4O301lbkiU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=gcTGsmnjwv8&NR=1
Listen carefully to the story of Moses’ Flute and consider how we might uncomplicated our lives.
To read about how ancient harps are made today, click on the image above or go to: http://harrariharps.com/
The Noontimes 