What In Your Life Needs Resurrection?
1Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!
2Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
3Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5Praise him with clanging cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
We are reminded daily of the loss from COVID, even as transmission rates drop. We totter on the edge of war. And yet, here we are in the Easter season, singing songs of praise. Does it feel out of place? How do we live into the promise of the Resurrection when it feels that outside of church, death and suffering have the last word? And yet, our psalm today urges us to praise God despite it all.
Perhaps this psalm may feel out of sync with how we are feeling. Despite the liturgical calendar, the constant barrage of death we see on the news may not leave us fully convinced in resurrection.
However, poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote that we should “walk [our] walk of lament on a path of praise.” The psalmist here shows us how: we are reminded to dance, to exult, to come to the temple. Our laments, our sadness, like the cornerstone that has been rejected, are what God uses to rebuild and resurrect that which was lost.
- What in your life needs resurrection? What do you need to lament so you can praise God today?
Kristen Ostendorf is in her second year at General Theological Seminary, working on her Masters of Divinity. She is a postulant for holy orders in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. She has worked as an educator, primarily as a high school history teacher, for about 15 years, and a newspaper reporter and copy editor before that.. When not studying, Kristen is a part-time educational consultant. She enjoys time with her girls, reading, running, walking, and hiking. Kristen looks for ways to lean into silence in the busyness of life.
