Day 21 - Tuesday, March 22
Title: HE IS MY DEFENSE
Scripture: Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8,11-12
Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be greatly moved.

My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God.

Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah

God has spoken once,
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God.
Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;
For You render to each one according to his work.

Poetry:
Complaint
by János Pilinszky
(translated by Ted Hughes & János Csokits)

Buried beneath live stars 
in the mud of nights
do you hear my dumbness?
as if a skyful of birds were approaching.

I keep up this wordless appeal.
Will you ever disinter me 
from the unending silence 
under your foreign skies?

Does my complaint reach you? 
Is my siege to no purpose?
All around me glitter 
reefs of fear.

Only let me count on you. God. 
I want your nearness so much, 
shivering
makes the love of loves even fierier.

Bury me in your embrace.
Do not leave me to the frost. 
Even if my air is used up 
my calling will not tire.

Be the bliss of my trembling 
like a tree’s leaves:
give a name, give a beautiful name 
a pillow to this disintegration.

HE IS MY ROCK AND MY REFUGE

Psalm 62 is for those of us who are in the midst of crisis. While the psalmist begins with a declaration of trust, of his own silent waiting for God, this is hardly a moment of contemplative, composed prayer. We read of his turmoil in vs. 3-4 as he addresses his enemies (“How long will you assault me?”), acknowledges his own experience (like that of a tottering, leaning, wall, about to fall apart), and pours out his complaint to God (“They delight in lies, with their hearts they curse”). With vs. 3-4 in view, the psalmist’s beginning declaration of trust reads more like a plea or, perhaps, a pep-talk-for-the-soul in the momentarily calm eye of a battering, chaotic storm.

Crucially, the silent waiting of v.1 is not the psalmist’s only response to crisis. After offering his own complaint in vs.3-4, he addresses the people, saying “Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (v.8). God, in his unfailing love and mercy, receives both our posture of silent waiting and our heart’s cries and complaints freely poured out. 

János Pilinszky, having been a prisoner of war during World War II, knew crisis well. His poem, “Complaint,” reflects his experiences, as he, following the psalmist, pours out his heart before God. “Does my complaint reach you? Is my siege to no purpose?” Pilinszky writes. Like the psalmist, he exhorts his own soul, “Only let me count on you, God. I want your nearness so much.”

When we are in crisis, when our minds and hearts are spinning and our bodies feel ungrounded and disconnected, the concrete images chosen by the psalmist and the poet can be powerful and potent. In Psalm 62 and “Complaint,” these images evoke embodied experiences of the Lord’s salvation. “He is my rock”, says the psalmist, finding the stability and centeredness of God in the face of his enemies’ lies. “He is my refuge,” says the psalmist, capturing a closeness to God’s presence that offers a sense of protection and preservation. “Bury me in your embrace,” says Pilinszky, evoking warmth and comfort in the midst of a dark, frosty night––“Shivering makes the love of loves even fierier.”

Kaisa Lee’s photograph, Meditations of Old, complements the images of the psalm and the poem as it also evokes an embodied experience of the Lord’s salvation. In the midst of shifting water and ominous clouds, the boulder stands firm and solid. Lee writes that the photograph “evokes a sense of centered inner strength” that comes from a life aligned with Christ. 

In the midst of the kinds of crises we have faced individually and collectively over the past few years, we are invited to follow the psalmist and the poet to foster that sense of centered inner strength that comes in aligning our lives with Christ. We are invited to both pour out our hearts before God and remind our souls to wait quietly with him; we are invited to live inside of God’s salvation as our rock, our refuge and our embrace.

Prayer
Lord God, these last few years have brought crisis after crisis.
Hear us as we pour out the complaints of our hearts before you.
Teach us to wait quietly with you, to find rest in the eye of the storm.
Help us to know your salvation as our rock, our refuge and our embrace.
Amen. 

Lisa Igram 
Dean of Student Wellness
Biola University

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.