Psalm 129: Psalms of Ascent and Lament
LAUDS
Written by Kate Denson
I spend most summers in a Central American community right outside of DC leading an internship program focused on neighboring and immigration. During our first weeks in the community, we give intentional time to learning the stories of the neighborhood and more broadly learning about the US immigration system and its impacts on many of the people we will come to know and love.
Lament is a natural outflow from this work. For many people we meet, there is no legal pathway for them to obtain US citizenship. Their home countries, often in part as a result of US involvement, are places they deeply miss but know they cannot safely live or thrive. The journey to the United States is frequently traumatic and once in the US, the cost of living and concerns for immigration status can be daunting.
The Psalmist in Psalm 129 cries out “They have greatly oppressed me from my youth (vs. 1-2)” and “Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long (vs. 3).” A couple of days ago, our new friend Ashley*(name changed), now 23, shared about her journey from Honduras as a 14-year-old. Her parents arrived first and she mentioned how her father rarely speaks about his journey but has a large scar on his back from where he fell off the trains riding through Mexico. Her marks are more internal as she was separated from her parents for much of her life and later fought for asylum and lost.
But as the Psalmist cries out to God, they also declare that the oppressors “have not gained the victory over me (vs. 2)” as the Lord “has cut me free from the cords of the wicked (vs. 4).” The story is never just one of tragedy but also human resilience, perseverance in hardship, all made possible by a gracious God. We learned about “Mission Integral,” a movement of Latinx theologians who, for decades, have led in a holistic reading of scripture and empowered people through the reading of scriptures through a Latnix lens. We also see stories like Ashley’s as she received a prestigious college scholarship for undocumented students and is graduating soon.
The Psalm ends with the Psalmist asking for accountability for those who have oppressed and hated the people of God. Asking God for justice that they be like withering grass, slipping away (vs. 6-7). It is right and good to ask God to end wickedness and oppression in our world, and to stop those who do harm. A song I often play during these summers is Jon Guerra’s “Citizens,” a song of lament and questioning God and the American church in the midst of an unjust immigration system. He cries out– and in something only implied in Psalm 129– appeals to a higher justice that is coming, where ALL the people of God can be citizens.
Coming to you for the hungry
Eating the scraps of this country
Didn’t you swear you would feed them
Tell me you won’t make them go
I need to know there is justice
That it will roll in abundance
And that you’re building a city
Where we arrive as immigrants
And you call us citizens
And you welcome us as children home
One day in the city of God, the Zion to come.
Reflection:
What communities are you a part of or proximate to that would cry out they have been “greatly oppressed from their youth”?
Take some time to cry out to God, take cues from verse three’s vivid imagery, that the shape of the oppression has been as though someone went to plow on their back.
How has God enabled resilience and perseverance despite hardship in your own or this community’s life? What will full healing look like one day when all is made right?
VESPERS
Belhar Confession, 1982
Introduction:
The Belhar Confession has its roots in the struggle against apartheid in southern Africa. It was first drafted in 1982 by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) and was formally adopted in 1986
It is now one of the “standards of unity” of the new Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). Belhar’s theological confrontation of the sin of racism is one of its tremendous strengths and gifts to church globally even as it elevates God’s call for justice, and reconciliation.
Over the years Christ City Church has included an adapted version of the Belhar Confession in our liturgy. That version is what is below as a call and response prayer of corporate confession and ongoing reminder that the work of justice continues today.
Leader:
We believe that God has entrusted the church with the message of reconciliation in and through Jesus Christ,
that the church is called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world,
that the church is witness both by word and by deed to the new heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells
Church:
We believe that God, in Christ, conquered the powers of sin and death, and therefore also of hatred, racism, racial division, bitterness, and enmity.
We believe that, that God's life-giving Word and Spirit will enable the church to live in a new obedience which can open new possibilities of life, justice and healing.
Leader:
We believe that any teaching which attempts to legitimize forced separation by appeal to the gospel, and is not prepared to venture on the road of obedience and reconciliation, but rather, out of prejudice, fear, selfishness and unbelief, denies the reconciling power of the gospel, must be considered idolatry and false doctrine.
Church:
We believe that God has revealed himself as the one who brings about justice and true peace through Christ.
We believe that God calls the church to follow him.
We believe God God brings justice to the oppressed, protects the stranger, cares for the orphaned, provides for the widow, and gives bread to the hungry;
We believe that God frees the prisoner and restores sight to the blind;
We believe that God blocks the path of the ungodly;
We believe that God calls the church to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with Him.
Leader:
We believe that the church must therefore stand with people in their suffering and must witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream;
We believe that Jesus is Lord.
Church:
To the one and only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be the honor and the glory for ever and ever.
