I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord, and was saved from every trouble. (Psalm 34: 4-6)

The Hebrew for fear is meguraw. The root is gur which means to be a stranger, a foreigner, to be traveling through a strange land far from home. We fear that which we do not understand.

The Hebrew for troubles is tsarah. The root is tsarar which means to be caught in a narrow place or bound tightly. The more narrow our experience, the more troubles we will have, the more often we will be as a stranger.

There is no limit to God: that which exists in the past, now, and in the future. In looking to God we are illuminated, we are unbound, everyplace can become as a home to us.

Above is a self-portrait of Hildegard of Bingen.

O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. (Psalm 43: 3-4)

Sacred space is any place that has been set apart. It is a place separated from the prosaic. It is a place dedicated to the profound.

Fernando and Gioia Lanzi have explained, "The Latin sanctus is the past participle of the Latin verb sancire, which means precisely to make something sak, that is, to bestow reality and validity on something, or to acknowledge the real existence of something... It follows that the root sak—and the words deriving from it in the Indo-European languages—refers to the foundation of what is real."

A sacred space helps us step away from the noises and illusions that can distract us from the real. A sacred space helps us engage the fundamental reality that is within us and without us.

Fernando and Gioia Lanzi are co-directors of the Centro Studi Per La Cultura Popolare in Bologna, Italy.

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness... On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul... The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. (Psalm 138: 1-3,8)

"The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me," can also be understood as "That which exists in the past, now, and in the future will achieve ultimate completion." The me is implicit and derived from context.

C.S. Lewis has argued that we find ourselves only when we stop seeking and lose ourselves in God's purposes. This is a good path to completion.

It may not be the only path. At least for me, at least today, God seems keen to increase my strength of soul, until I am able to partner with that which exists to achieve completion.

I call on God for rahab - boldness and strength - of my inward being.

You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. (Psalm 51: 6-10)

We are creatures of many parts. We are the product of our parents, our culture, our times, our place, and all of our varied experiences.

But we are more than the sum of these parts. There is an inward being (tuwchah). Here is our origin and our ultimate destination. This is our essential identity.

Too many of our experiences tend to obscure or impede our inward being. There is a need from time to time to purge and clean; to reclaim our original purposes and direction.

Above is Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Salvador Dali.

Those who give thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me... (Psalm 50: 23)

The original Hebrew for this phrase consists of only three words in a verb-noun-verb construction: slaughter - thanksgiving - makes heavy.

In context the slaughtering can be understood as making sacred that which is killed. That which is slaughtered is unalterably transformed both physically and spiritually.

Thanksgiving involves casting forth or shooting forth praise, thanks, and confession. As a noun this is not giving thanks, but closer to experiencing a persistent state of thanks and praise.

Honoring - kabad in Hebrew meaning heavy, rich, glorious, burdensome - seems close to the English for profound. As a verb we would add something similar "to make."

We could recast the translation as "Sacrificing with Thanksgiving makes Glory."

When we intentionally give away with an experience of thankful joy we can be co-creators of the sacred.

Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments... You are good and do good; teach me your statutes. (Psalm 119: 67 and 69)

To learn we must listen. Sharing our own understanding and discussing with others is part of active listening. But the more we talk, the less we will learn.

Careful reading is a form of listening. The writer gives us the opportunity to listen word for word, line by line, and take the time we need to consider context, tone, and connections.

At 176 verses Psalm 119 is the longest in the canon. In the original Hebrew it was organized as an acrostic. There are twenty-two sections, one for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. In each section the first word of each verse begins with that letter.

This was originally a long song that would have been heard, not read. There is density and complexity to the oratorio that demands careful listening.

The lines above, quoted from the New Interational Version translation, might also be rendered as, "Teach me beauty, taste, and perception, I support your commands... You are pleasant, beautiful, and joyful, teach me what you want me to do."

I wonder which better reflects the intention of the author? I wonder which better reflects the purposes of God?

May God strengthen my ability to hear and understand.

You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. (Psalm 45: 7-9)

This is a song written for the wedding of King David to a Phoenician Princess. It came to be heard as a song anticipating the messiah.

We have been invited to a wedding banquet. We need only accept. We need only to arrive ready to dance, and drink, and celebrate.

We are to put on our best robes - both physical and metaphorical. We are to arrive in joyful anticipation. We are to be glad.

Above is the Wedding Banquet in the Nymphs' Grotto by Marc Chagall

In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Yet you have rejected us and abased us, and have not gone out with our armies. You made us turn back from the foe, and our enemies have gotten spoil. You have made us like sheep for slaughter, and have scattered us among the nations. (Psalm 44: 8-11)

I do not perceive that God rejects us, abases us, or causes us to be slaughtered. I do perceive a universe of freedom where we can choose horrible paths. I also perceive a universe where random creativity can seem to us like catastrophic chaos. We are in danger from both intentional and unintentional threats but God does not threaten us.

It is my experience that, like Job, we can find God in the whirlwind. God does not propel the whirlwind - or the enemy - or the disease to a specific target. But God is certainly there.

I do not wish to meet death today. I hope that today I will make progress, not fall into a pit. But I do not wish to live in a universe without the possibility of death or failure. In challenge and chaos there is a call to a creativity, a faith, a hope, and a love that really matters.

The promise of God is to be with us whatever our circumstance. God will not stop the whirlwind. But in relationship with God we have the strength to make whole what the whirlwind has broken.

O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)

This morning - and most mornings - I race to meditation. Most mornings I walk from my house to my office along the meadow beside the woods.

This morning the moon was bright overhead. A few clouds, round with approaching winter, floated between me and the stars.

This morning - a sabbath morning - I give myself more time and read from Philo, Maimonides, the Talmud, and the gospels, trying to discern perceptions of God from a millennia or two ago; seeking to refine my understanding and inform my experience of God.

This is filling. This is completing. Here - at least for a short while - I am whole.

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips (Psalm 63:5)

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord impugns no iniquity. and in whose spirit there is no deceit. (Psalm 32: 1-2)

The psalmist has chosen especially dense words.

Happy, blessed, esher - able to walk straight and make progress - are those whose transgression, rebellion, pasa - prideful stepping forward in resistence - is forgiven, carried away, nasa - is lifted off.

Such happiness will come to those who do not intentionally deceive; where there is no purposeful attempt to bend or twist fundamental reality.

Above is Garden of Forgiveness by Jumpei Sankatetsu Matsushima.

In you, O Lord, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me. (Psalm 31: 1)

We are in the midst of the seven day festival of Sukkot. This was originally the harvest festival of ancient Israel. It is a time for recalling the journey of our ancestors and ourselves. It is also a time of great joy and a great party. We are instructed to stop working, give thanks, offer praise, and share our harvest with neighbors, widows, orphans, and strangers.

Today we read from the 31st Psalm. In my own journey this psalm has emerged as a remarkable companion. When I have been most afraid, these words have seemed to push themselves on me. The psalm has surprised me. I have not been looking for it and it will show up at exactly the right time... a kind of Lone Ranger of spiritual support.

I am still engaged in a personal Exodus. I am not yet ready to cross over into a Promised Land. But in so many ways God is with me. In the words of scripture, in the love of friends and family, in the creative possibilities that appear like manna from the desert, God is leading me and is protecting me, especially from my own mistaken choices.

The time of harvest is here, "I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love."

More information on Sukkot is available from everythingjewish.com.

Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret - it leads only to evil. (Psalm 37: 3-9)

Worry emerges from a lack of faith. May God forgive - and heal - my lack of faith.

The Hebrew translated in the 37th Psalm as fret is charah which can also be translated as anger. Charah is closely related to the Hebrew that means to be burned. Do not worry to the point of burning. Do not worry to the point of causing yourself and others pain.

To avoid worry do good, take delight, listen carefully, be patient, avoid envy, do not become angry, abstain from angry action.

To avoid worry we are instructed to trust and commit ourselves to the One Who Exists. The Hebrew for trust also means to be bold - even to be careless. The Hebrew for commit is literally to "roll together."

Don't worry. Avoid anger. Instead be bold in choosing a creative path. Thoroughly commit yourself to that path.

Let's Roll.

O Lord, all my longing is known to you; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction, and my neighbors stand far off. Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin, and meditate treachery all day long. But I am like the deaf, I do not hear; like the mute, who cannot speak. Truly, I am like one who does not hear, and in whose mouth is no retort. But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. (Psalm 38: 9-15)

A sigh can cleanse or it can attack. When directed at another a sigh is too often passive aggressive.

When we are alone a sigh can be a release of tension or an expression of incomprehension. A sigh can begin to unravel hurt. It can also be our first reaction in awe.

Our sigh can be an exhaling that is the first step to meditation. A cleansing breath helps open the mind and heart.

Above is Sigh of Love by Javier Lopez Barbosa

How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. (Psalm 36: 7-9)

Love protects and is generous. Love is sensual and playful. Love enlivens and illuminates. God's love is a pattern for our loving.

The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them. (Psalm 25: 14)

Older translations use the word "secret" instead of friendship. The Hebrew is cowd which, depending on context, can also mean a meeting, counsel, or intimate conversation.

We cherish meetings with our best friends. In these intimate settings we can share our secrets and seek their counsel.

The Hebrew for fear (yare') can also be translated as respect, honor, or be astonished. True friendship is astonishing. Friendship includes a full encounter with the otherness of our friend and yet despite this difference we discover sharing so much. The love of friends can transform our lives.

Covenant is a profoundly important concept of faith and theology. The original Hebrew is ber-eeth. This is also the term for a treaty between nations, or a marriage, or the alliance of friends. It is derived from the Hebrew for eating. A friendship fills and satisfies us.

Given the importance of our relationship with God we have developed an exalted language to discuss it. This is appropriate. It can also be an impediment.

We might also understand this verse as, "God's friendship is available to all who treat God as a friend." In our best friends we may also experience some of God's love.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea roar and all that is in it; let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth. (Psalm 96: 11-13)

The scriptures include terrible visions of a final judgement. Here is an alternative vision. Here judgement does not divide but reconcile. Rather than separate between the condemned and the saved, the entire earth is restored to wholeness.

The psalmist may also suggest that rather than a dramatic end-time we should be attentive to an emerging reality. "Tell of his salvation day-to-day," is the second verse. Is the telling to be day-to-day or is the salvation? Is God coming in the future or is this present tense?

In my experience - and in my reading of scripture - God's justice and righteousness are moving through the earth day-by-day, minute-to-minute.

The presence of God is surely cause for awe. On a first encounter, it may even be cause for fear. But the judgement of a loving God is mostly cause for great joy.

Above is a collage entitled Joy by Billie Sumner.

May he grant you your heart's desire, and fulfill all your plans. (Psalm 20:4)

For the psalmists God was a very present and practical force. The afterlife was a concept that largely emerged after the psalms were written. A spiritual life was valued, but was not differentiated from daily life.

In the psalms God will cause the rain to fall (or not), will vanquish enemies (or not), will bless believers with wealth and health (or not). To discern God's will and to do it was a pragmatic path to success.

I seek to discern the will of God. I perceive that within that will is a way of wholeness and fulfillment. Discernment points to a path that must be walked, and it is in my walking the path that God's will is brought into the world (or not).

Today many churches remember the life and teachings of Teresa of Avila. She wrote:

Christ has no body now but yours;
No hands, no feet on earth but yours;
Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world;
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

More information on Teresa of Avila is available at Wikipedia

Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you..." You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures evermore. (Psalm 16: 1,2, and 11)

God is the ultimately real. Apart from God I am separated from reality. A life of illusion, of shadows, of smoke, and mirrors - despite its funhouse aspect - soon becomes unsatisfactory, disorienting, and even dangerous.

The very heart of reality - the essential nature of God - is creativity. Creating with God is about planting the smallest of seeds and being surprised by a blossoming of color, strength, and bounty beyond imagination.

Embraced by and embracing reality we are safe. Co-creating with the real we can be fully and finally ourselves.

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18: 2)

Many rocks are formed from heat and pressure. What was once hot flowing lava cools and combines with surrounding minerals and results in a strong composite. What was once soft shale is transformed by the weight of mountains into something as tough and beautiful as a diamond. Rock emerges from turmoil.

Above is a photograph of a microscopic image of palisades quartz. More information is available at the Atlas of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks, Minerals, and Textures.

With my whole heart I seek you. (Psalm 119: 10)

In seeking God we may also find our true selves. Apart from God - separated from a full understanding of reality - we are inclined to confusion. Together with God we are reconciled within our selves and to our context.

Yom Kippur begins at sundown this evening. This is the Jewish Day of Atonement. Tonight and tomorrow concludes ten days of reflection, repentence, and renewal. By reclaiming a whole heart we might become at-one with God.

While introspection is a crucial aspect of atonement, so is moral action. Wholeness requires engagement with all of God's reality. In the struggle and sacrifice of daily life our weakness may be reconciled with our strength. In a liturgy of living we may finally come to experience our intended selves, the real world, and our loving God.

More information on Yom Kippur is available at MyJewishLearning.com.

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil will not sojourn with you. The boastful will not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful. (Psalm 5: 4-6)

God is our ground of being. God is that which is fundamentally real. God is absent to those who misrepresent reality, especially for their own benefit.

The psalmist characterizes his enemies as those who seek to flatter him and mislead him. Enemies are those who seek to destroy rather than create. Evil, in Hebrew ra', is the result of breaking into pieces that which is meant to be whole.

God is a refuge of truth, of creation, and of reconciliation for the broken. Division and destruction are the enemies of the real. Illusion is a powerful enemy, but the foundation of reality does not change.

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. (Psalm 1: 1-3)

Scoffers fill many seats. Skepticism increases. Cynicism deepens. The waterways of cooperation and creativity are drained. Our civic life withers. Our prosperity falters.

It is easy to criticize. It is difficult to create.

We should be careful in our criticism. Even a tree planted by a stream needs occasional pruning. But pruning is intended to benefit the tree and it is done in season.

Above is The Scoffers IV by Dimo Kalibarov.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. (Psalm 23)

Some call this the Age of Anxiety. We do, indeed, face frightening challenges: yesterday a massive earthquake across South Asia, today a possible terrorist attack in New York, over the horizon a killer pandemic. In each of our lives there are more personal threats - real or perceived - that can seem to overwhelm us.

Maimonides, a 12th Century Jewish scholar, expelled from Spain and suffering many pains and persecutions before flourishing in Egypt, offered this prescription for our times, "Take some essence of praise and awareness, and some essence of joy and confidence. Remove the pits of anguish and anxiety. Take the flower from the pomegranates of knowledge and insight, and add roots of patience and acceptance. Grind everything in a mill of self-effacement, and cook in a pot of humility. Knead with sweetened words and emulsify in a solution of grace and loving kindness. Feed the patient who is suffering from despair..."

Learn more about Moses Maimonides at the Jewish Virtual Library.

Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall, how they said, "Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!" O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock! (Psalm 137: 7-9)

The Hebrew scriptures develop a logic of unfaithful choices resulting in deserved punishment. This is in contrast to a concept of inescapable fate embraced by many cultures. From these teachings we derive our understanding of freedom with responsibility.

Choices surely have consequences. But does every consequence result from choice?

In each moment a universe of free creatures make an infinite number of choices. Can my own choice trump this deluge of reality? Injustice visits the innocent. Prosperity blesses the incompetent. We might trace each consequence to some vast collection of choices freely undertaken. But does the individual consequence always reflect the individual's choice?

In Psalm 144, also assigned for today's reading, we find, "Happy are the people whose God is the Lord." Another way of translating this is, "For those who follow the source of existence - past, present, and future - the way will continue forward."

Whatever happens we can choose to stay on the way of God.

In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. Look on my right hand and see - there is no one who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for me. (Psalm 142: 4)

We are told that David wrote this psalm while hiding in a cave. He had recently defeated Goliath making him a hero. Fearing the crowd's affection for David, King Saul was hunting David to kill him.

David had done Saul a great favor. He had defeated a strong enemy. But now the hero had become the hunted. David turns to God. At the conclusion of this maskil psalm - perhaps meaning it has a particular instructional value - David sings, "The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me."

Faith does not avoid trouble. Often faith will cause trouble. But faith provides a means by which the trouble may be transcended. In relationship with God - the ground of all being - we are enabled to bring forth the beautiful from the ugly maw of destruction.

Above is Saul Attacking David by Guercino.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul within me is like a weaned child. (Psalm 131:2)

Good parenting aims to prepare the child for a fulfilling life that is not dependent on the parent. The process of weaning the child is very much about separating. Yet the separating will proceed more quickly and more easily if the child feels assured of a continuing emotional connection. The more loved the child feels, the more easily the child is weaned.

Scripture and experience suggest it is God's will for all of creation to have free will. Our freedom can, however, be enriched through a deepening relationship with God. It is interesting that the psalmist has emphasized that calming and quieting the soul is an act of individual will. Anxiety, agitation, and anger are expressions of the self that exclude others.

By calming and quieting ourselves we open ourselves to accepting the love of others - including the love of God. Through calm and quiet we are also better able to love others.

Great is your mercy, O Lord; give me life according to your justice. (Psalm 119: 156)

The Hebrew for mercy, in this case, is racham. Other translations of the Hebrew might be compassion or love. The meaning is similar to our contemporary understanding of empathy. God understands our intent and our confusion, our strengths and our weaknesses. As a result, God loves us even when we do the unlovable.

Our life is preserved, revived, and given meaning through God's insightful judgement (mishpat). We often neglect the laws of God. But in judging us God is empathetic. God does not look only at outcomes, but also considers the context and the intent. Our life is dependent on a loving God of perfect justice.

I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. (Psalm 121)

Above is St. Francis of Assisi and the Miracle of the Spring by Giotto. In many churches today is specifically celebrated in memory of St. Francis.

I need help. Help is promised. Help is offered. Too often I don't recognize the help. Sometimes I see the help but am too proud or ashamed to accept it. I can insist on stumbling and tumbling toward disaster. Finally - if only in desperation - I may reach out.

Happy are those who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times. (Psalm 106: 3)

Sundown this evening marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and ten Days of Awe on the Jewish calendar. This is a period of reflection, repentence, renewal, and return.

We reflect on what we have chosen and how these decisions impact our relationships. As appropriate, we change and seek forgiveness. With new choices we may renew the foundations of justice and righteousness on which every relationship depends.

More on Rosh Hashanah is available at Chabad.org.

Sunrise with Sea Monsters by J.M.W. Turner

Restore us, O God; let your face shine that we may be saved. (Psalm 80: 3)

Whatever monsters we encounter - and especially those of our own making - they may be vanquished if we will turn our face toward the way of a creation and beauty, the tao of ultimate reality, the path of God.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. (Psalm 107: 28-30)

Most of us live in a very noisy world. The noise can be loudly literal and as a metaphor nearly inescapable. The noise slices into our hearts and minds, distracting and dividing us. Our haven is a quiet place where we can reclaim a wholeness. In this peaceful place we may also become reacquainted with one another and with God.