Spiritual Formation: Hiding God's Word in Our Hearts

1:49 So that was your homework. For those of you who didn't do your homework, The process is that we're examining creation. That when Scripture talks about, 23rd Psalm, talks about the green pastures, talks about still waters, this is a process of slowing down. We live in a culture where it's difficult to slow down and notice. And creation, what God has created, assists us in slowing down enough so that we can notice what is around us. There's a lot of beauty around us. I talked about the other week, there's something that scientists have been examining known as tree bathing. That when you are around trees, automatically that there is, it relaxes you. And they found out that trees release certain things that allow you to just literally just bring your anxiety down. And so creation in the scripture, when it talks about green pastures, still waters, this is an act of slowing down.

2:57 Let me bring your anxiety down. Because the scripture is written, as we've talked about, David is writing this under the shadow of the fact that Saul wanted to kill him. You usually don't write about green pastures and still waters when somebody's trying to take you out. But he found that as he was writing this piece of poetry and looking at creation with all of the stress around him, the green pastures, the still waters bring down his anxiety. And then he begins to talk about you've restored my soul. You restored my soul. So tonight we're going to look at, and I'm really excited about it, because I'm a lover of poetry. And that's what we've been looking at. We have been looking at poetry. The psalmist, the psalter, as it's called, is a collection of poetry. And let me give you some of these just wonderful quotes here.

3:56 Frederick Buechner says, poetry is putting a frame around mystery. James Monaco says, if poetry is what cannot be translated, as Robert Frost once suggested, then art is what cannot be defined. And so we're going to examine a couple of pieces here. Oh, no, that's not what we're looking at just yet. And Emily Dickinson described the reading of poetry and the effect it has upon the human soul. Listen for a moment to Emily Dickinson describe how the experience of poetry elevates and penetrates one's spirit. Here's what Emily Dickinson said. If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold, no fire can warm me, I know that it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that it is poetry.

4:57 These are the only ways I know it. Poetry is a sacred, solitary, and communal act. Poetry is personal and public. Poetry speaks individually, and poetry speaks collectively. Great poetry alters how we see the world. And that's what the psalmist does. And we're going to get a little bit deeper into how the psalmist helps us see the world a little bit differently. The poetry of the past, when we think about poetry many times that we learned in school, makes us think of meter or pattern or rhyme scheme. But poems or poetry dare to create images, taste, smell, a place, capture the uncapturable. In poetry, we find language for what prose, story, and journalism cannot capture.

6:06 They're inadequate to report. So you need some poetry to talk about that which is a mystery. You need poetry if you're going to talk about what is sacred. You need poetry when you're talking about the Holy Spirit. It's not a journalist to say, well, tell us what the Holy Spirit was like. No, you need some poetry to talk about that experience that you have, the encounter with what is sacred. And we have an entire book in Scripture focused on poetry. Not just the psalmist, but if you want to understand suffering, resilience, and faith, you got to talk to Job. And Job says it in poetry. He doesn't say it in something that is literal, a journalist coming before you. It must be stated in poetry. There are some things that can only be stated with music, poetry, or dance because everything else is inadequate.

7:07 It may be just a movement that communicates or just a chord that communicates, but poetry is designed this way. And so we're going to look at a couple of poems, a couple of poems. And I've actually gotten this wonderful book, African-American Poetry, 250 Years of Struggle and Song, edited by Kevin Young. But this is a great collection of black poetry. I might add that Kevin Young was also one of the curators at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. They put this book out from poetry from the moment that black folk ended up on this soil to today. They end out, I believe they end out with a contemporary poet and they end out with somebody from Chicago. I think that the way it ends, because there's some Chicago has some of the best poets in the country, by the way. I just have to just shout out what not. You can fight with me later if you don't think so.

8:05 But I can make the argument that Chicago really does. But nonetheless, we're going to begin with a poem, a portion of a poem. I'm not going to read the entire piece, but a portion of a poem that everybody is familiar with. How many people here are familiar with Maya Angelou? Absolutely. Her book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Ever heard of it? Or read it? Yes, indeed. All right. Well, that title is taken from Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Paul Lawrence Dunbar, who was born and dated in Ohio. And by the way, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, did you know one of his friends, a great friend of his, when he was in school was a person by the name of Orville Wright. You know the Wright brothers? Yeah, the Wright brothers. Yeah, that was part of his crew, you know, back in the day. Now, Dunbar only lived to about age 33.

9:02 but he created and passed of tuberculosis by the way and created some of the most iconic poetry but he created through imagery that is so powerful and this poem, and I'm only reading I'm not reading the whole thing is entitled Sympathy and it has a frame, or a reframe I should say that everyone is familiar with and that line is, I know why the caged bird sings. Well, matter of fact, I've got time. I'm going to read the whole thing for you. It's called Sympathy. It's not long. It's not long, but this is Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Sympathy. But I want you to hear the image. I want you to hear the imagery that just writing some prose, you can't get to this. And think about black people who heard this At the turn of the century, this man say these words.

10:00 The title of the poem is Sympathy. I know what the caged bird feels. Alas, when the sun is bright on the upland slopes, when the wind stirs soft through the springing grass and the river flows like a stream of glass, when the first bird sings and the first bud opens and the faint perfume from its chalice steals, I know what the cage bird feels. I know what the cage bird, I know why the cage bird beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars. For he must fly back to his perch and cling when he fain would be on the bow of a swing and a pain still throbs in the old, old scars and they pulse again with a keener sting.

10:57 I know why he beats his wings. I know why the caged bird sings. I mean, when his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, when he beats his bars, he would be free. It is not a carol of joy or glee, but a prayer. that he sins from his heart's deep core, but a plea that upward to heaven he flings. I know why the caged bird sings. So here's Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Is he just talking about a bird? No, he's talking about black people. He's talking about us. That he understands why even in the midst of some of the most difficult circumstances, he understands why the caged bird feels. feels. He understands what it feels. He understands why the caged bird beats his wings. But he also knows why the caged bird sings. The imagery, it's speaking more than literal. So let me help you out. If all you do is look at scripture from a literal vantage point, you're going to miss so much of the word of God.

12:10 It is more than that. We're looking at poetry tonight. We're looking at the poetry, not only of our ancestors, but then we're going to move to the poetry that we see in the psalmist. And Paul Lawrence Dunbar gave us an image of a bird, but he's really talking about us, and helped us understand how we feel and why we sing. So that's an example. The poem entitled Sympathy. So here he is when people have been cruel talking about people of African descent. He says, no, let me tell you why you need to have some sympathy. Because we know what they've been going through. I can write about what they have been going through. So that is Paul Lawrence Dunbar. But there's another person by the name of Angela Weld Grimke. Angela Weld Grimke is named after her great aunt who was an abolitionist.

13:07 This wonderful woman who was an abolitionist. Let me find her poem real quick here. And she did some extraordinary, extraordinary writing and work. And Angela Grimke wrote this poem entitled The Black Finger. It reads this way. I have just seen a most beautiful thing, slim and still against a gold, gold sky, a straight black cypress, sensitive, exquisite, a black finger pointing upwards. Why, beautiful, still finger, are you black? And why are you pointing upwards? Now, is she just talking about a tree? No, she's talking again about us and raising a question because in the background, the context of the poem is the fact that why should you be standing and pointing upward with all that has happened to you?

14:21 You're beautiful. You're wonderful. But there's a mystery here that Angela Grimke is saying is that somehow black people just keep pointing upward no matter what. I want to know why. Raising the question. Again, poetry is putting some offense around mystery, putting a frame around mystery. So that's Angela Grimke. But here's the other poem that I want you to hear by Angela Grimke entitled, Trees. God made them very beautiful, the trees. He spoke and gnarled of boiling or silken sleek. They grew majestic, bowed or very meek, huge, bodied, slim, sedate and full of glees.

15:21 And he had pleasure deep in all of these. And to them soft and little tongues to speak, of him to us he gave, wherefore they seek, from dawn to dawn to bring us to our knees. Yet here amid the wistful sounds of leaves, a black-hued gruesome something swings and swings, Laughter it knew. And joy in little things. Till man's hate ended all. And so man weaves. And God, how slow, how very slow weaves he. Was Christ himself nailed to a tree. So here is the, what is she doing?

16:14 She's first talking about a tree. The beauty of the tree. But then the juxtaposition, the juxtaposition of what was beautiful, somebody put a body swinging from that tree. And then does another juxtaposition. Here is the thing. What she does is she says this. She's saying, wait a minute, they have placed black people, hung black people on these trees. wasn't Christ nailed to a tree? What she does is simply this. She places white supremacy as Rome.

16:58 In other words, you just as you nailed Christ to the tree, you have hung us on trees. You are not the heroes of the story. You are the villains and we cast you in a different way. Now, and the beautiful thing about this, if you really don't know what's going on, that's the power of a poet. A poet can fuss you out and don't even know you're being fussed out. Oh, that was cute. We do it all the time. All the time. Here, let me give you some poetry that actually fusses some folks out. Has anybody here heard Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. Oh, good. Okay, I'm glad. I don't have to explain it. So we've all heard I Have a Dream, one of the most iconic speeches. Now the story goes that Dr. King was presenting his speech. He did not have that clothes that we know as I Have a Dream. The story is that Mahalia Jackson was in the back and said, tell them about the dream, Martin. And as he was speaking, I like to use musical references, that Dr. King was a homiletical DJ standing before the people at that moment. And when he heard Mahalia Jackson say, tell them about the dream. He decided to dig through his homiletical crate, and he pulled out an LP from a woman who had recently prayed by the name of Prathia Hall from Albany, Georgia, who offered a prayer that went like this. I have a dream that one day America will live up to her promise.

18:38 I have a dream one day that we will no longer have to fear the idea, I think she said fear state-sponsored terror, some of that nature, but she kept repeating this frame of I have a dream. And then Dr. King offers that in that moment, I have a dream. But here is the thing most people don't know that he fussed a whole lot of folk out. when he says, you remember this in the speech where he says, let freedom ring? You remember that? He says, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain. Let freedom ring from the Great Smoky Mountains. Now, most people from the North, they just thought that was a rhetorical flourish. But for black folk, my parents heard, they're like, oh my goodness. They said black folk got the Holy Ghost when they said that. Black folk was like, oh shoot, did you hear what Dr. King just said? He said, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain.

19:34 That doesn't mean much to many people, but if you're from the South, it would mean a whole lot. Stone Mountain was the headquarters of the KKK. So when he said, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain, he would say, let's get rid of the Klan. Let freedom ring from the Great Smoky Mountains. That's where the KKK was born. So he was throwing shade. And so black folk were looking and said, did Dr. King say we taking out the Klan next week? And so there was a real excitement when they heard it, but it was what is called a double entendre. Meaning I can say one thing, you know what I'm saying, but everybody else doesn't know what I'm saying. And he was speaking in poetry in that double entendre in that moment, just as the poet, Angela Grimke, is speaking on two levels. So another one that speaks more, not just on two levels, but speaks directly is this poem entitled Southern Cop.

20:40 So let's look at that before we even get to the psalmist. I want you to see what this poem, Southern Cop, by Sterling Brown. So see if this sounds familiar. This is something from the 1930s. But see if this sounds familiar today. Let's forgive Ty Kendricks. The place was dark town. He was young. His nerves were jittery. The day was hot. The Negro ran out of the alley, so he shot. Let us understand Ty Kendricks, the Negro must have been dangerous because he ran. And here was a rookie with a chance to prove himself a man. Let us condone Ty Kendricks if we cannot decorate. When he found what the Negro was running for, it was too late. And all we can say for the Negro is it was unfortunate.

21:39 Let us pity Ty Kendricks. He has been through enough standing there, his big gun smoking, rabbit scared alone, having to hear the wench's wail and the dying Negro moan. Does that sound familiar? I mean, he takes what is known as being in one level. He is, it's called irony. Another level, he is being satirical. He is speaking on two levels. He doesn't really say that, you know, Ty Kendrick should have our pity. But he's saying that that is the way that the world functions. Functions and lifts up Ty Kendrick. Instead of the unnamed. He's just a Negro who was shot.

22:33 He has no family. He has no history. He has none of that. So the poet is giving something that many other people are unable to do. He's unmasking what is happening in the world. That's Sterling Brown who writes that. And then we come down to one of the most famous poets. Anybody here ever heard of this guy named Langston Hughes? Raise your hand if you've heard of Langston Hughes. All right, put your hand up. Raise your hand if you've never heard Langston Hughes. It's all right if you haven't. That's good. All right. All y'all are black. That's good. I'm glad to hear that. So Langston Hughes is considered to be the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance, writes this beautiful poem, but the title is the one that you need to know first. The poem is entitled Harlem.

23:29 What you're about to hear is about Harlem. But he doesn't say anything about Harlem, but he says everything about Harlem. But he's not just talking about Harlem, he's talking about every community. He's talking about Bronzeville and South Shore and Inglewood, West Garfield. He's talking about every, every community. He says, what happens to what? A dream deferred. Does it what? Like a raisin in the sun. Or what? and then run. Does it stink or crust? Maybe it just like a heavy load.

24:13 Now, he doesn't say anything about 125th Street, but he's talking about Harlem. He's talking about the dreams of a community. Again, the imagery, there's certain things that you can do with poetry that you can't do with other things. So I also put in there for you to read. I know everybody. It's themed for English B. It's a great poem. I'm going to ask that you just read that on your own. It's a beautifully written poem. And then I had to include somebody from Chicago, none other than Gwendolyn Brooks, the great Gwendolyn Brooks. Had to include somebody from Chicago without a doubt. One of the poet laureate of Chicago, Gwendolyn Brooks. and this poem is infirm. Everybody here is infirm. Everybody here is infirm.

25:09 Oh, mend me. Mend me, Lord. Mend me. Today I say to them, say to them, say to them, Lord, look, I'm beautiful, beautiful, with my wing that is wounded, my eye that is bonded, or my ear not funded or my walk all a wobble. I'm enough to be beautiful. You are beautiful too. So Gwendolyn Brooks is saying that everybody is what? Everybody is beautiful and also everyone is infirm. You may walk with a wobble. You're beautiful too. You may not, your ear is not funded. You're beautiful too. She's looking at people all around them and passing on the fact that you're beautiful. And as she's speaking, it is also a prayer written by Gwendolyn Brooks because she's talking as she's writing, speaking to God that we're all beautiful.

26:14 And then the final one that I have here, and then we're going to move on to see how the psalmist does some of this also, is this wonderful gentleman by the name of Robert Hayden. And Robert Hayden, who taught for 24 years at Fick's University, along with University of Michigan, and was part of the Baha'i community. And he has a poem talking about Frederick Douglass. I love Frederick Douglass, by the way. That's my man. I love Frederick Douglass. He's a bad brother, by the way. But Frederick Douglass, he writes this about Frederick Douglass. When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful and terrible thing, needful to man as air, usable as earth, when it belongs at last to all. When it is truly instinct, brain matter, da stole, systole, reflex, action.

27:12 When it is finally one, when it is more than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians. This man, this Douglas, this former slave, this Negro, beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world where none is lonely, none hunted, alien. This man superb in love and logic, this man shall be remembered. Oh, not with statuous rhetoric, nor with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone, but with the lives grown out of his life. The lives fleshing his dreams of the beautiful, needful thing. he uses this idea talking about Frederick Douglass and Douglass and this idea this needful thing of freedom and he talks about Douglass in such a beautiful and powerful way instead of going directly like Frederick Douglass was a good man he uses the language and imagery of a man who was alienated beaten to his knees and all of this but he will be remembered not by statues but through the life that will come through his life, this needful thing that is freedom.

28:34 So we started off tonight, I wanted to give you some poetry that comes out of our tradition. Before we look at the poetry that comes out of this ancient tradition, which is also a part of our tradition, the poetry of the psalmist. I introduce to you a wonderful and beautiful book that everyone should read in the Bible known as the Psalms. It is phenomenal. It will bless you, the imagery that you will find, and you will discover when you read it, when you read it out loud, when you do your homework, read it out loud, you are going to hear things speak to your spirit that you did not expect to speak when we delve into Scripture on a different level. So let me break down for you the way in which the Psalms are structured and written.

29:36 There's really three ways to understand this and three simple ways. There is a scholar, one of my favorite Old Testament scholars, is a person by the name of Walter Brueggemann. Walter Brueggemann was an Old Testament scholar. When he was living, he was taught at the Columbia Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian school in Atlanta, Georgia. And there he wrote a book entitled The Prophetic Imagination. That really put him on the map. And when he wrote The Prophetic Imagination, he said, we got to understand Exodus in a different way. He said, when you look at Exodus, it is a fight between two ways of looking at the world. Pharaoh looks at the world through what he calls royal consciousness. I'm in control. I got power, and I don't want nobody to mess with it. He says that's the way Pharaoh looks at it. But he says that Moses, though he has no army, though he has no money, though he really doesn't have anything, has something more powerful than Pharaoh.

30:50 He has the prophetic imagination. He said imagination can beat those who think they got power every day of the week. Because the prophetic imagination, meaning that God holding your imagination to see a world that is not yet, but you act as if it's already here. That's the prophetic imagination. And he said it's a clash between the prophetic imagination and what he calls royal consciousness. I want to keep everything the way it is. So this book put him on the map in terms of how do we look at the Old Testament, specifically Exodus. And then he writes this book, and I want to share it with you of how to look at the Psalms. There are three, only three types of Psalms according to Brueggemann, and I think this is a great way to look at it. And really, he talks about his three ways that you're going to experience life. He said the first type of Psalm that we will read is called a Psalm of Orientation. The Psalm of Orientation is the one that says, praise the Lord.

32:01 It's the psalm that speaks about the goodness of God. That's a psalm of orientation. Me and I are oriented in reference to my understanding of who God is. God is good. And black folks say, God is good. And all the time. All right, that's an orientation saying. That means that we're rooted in a particular way. That we understand God is God. And God is doing God's work. So one of the Psalms of orientation is Psalm 8. It gives you an example. Psalm 8 says,

33:55 Here the psalmist is trying to contemplate the majesty and beauty of God. Talking about, why would you be mindful of me? I know me. I know how I am. I know how human. But yet you have trusted us to be stewards of your very creation. This is a psalm of orientation. My relationship with God. That's cool. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. Everybody will have a psalm of orientation at some point in your life. God is good. See, you just see. See, that's psalm of orientation right there. But the truth is, you can't just have psalms of orientation in your life. You got to have a psalm of disorientation. Let me say it this way.

34:48 When all hell breaks loose, you need to have a psalm, a song, a poem that speaks about those moments. So there's a psalm of orientation when you read in the psalmist. Then there's a psalm of disorientation. So here's the 13th Psalm. This is disorientation. How long, O Lord, will you forget me? You can just stay there right there. You ain't got to go nowhere else. And all of us have had that disorienting moment where we say, how long, Lord? How long is this going to take? How long you going to forget about me. The Psalms are real. When I say real, this isn't all just about some praise and worship. The psalmist raises some real questions. How long? I want to know. How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me.

36:00 Now here is the thing. How many people grew up in a tradition you said you're not supposed to question God? So you can't read that psalm then. You can't read that psalm then. There are certain things you can't read in Scripture because do you not know all through Scripture somebody is raising a question to God. Jesus was on the cross. what did Jesus say on the cross So if Jesus can raise the question, why can't you?

36:44 If the psalmist can raise, and if you are out of that tradition, I understand. Traditions are not necessarily rooted in Scripture. Many times they're rooted in fear. because the question is, well, what if I ask a question I don't have an answer to? That's all right.

37:06 Job spends an entire book raising questions to God. But you can read Job in a very different way. So here's the wonderful thing about Job, and I learned this from my father. He says that Job is literally, it's a book about suffering. But you've got to be careful who your friends are when you're suffering. My father says it this way. Be careful about discomforting comforters who will come by. Because all they did was try to say, Job, you know you did something to deserve this. Come on, just tell me. Let me in on what you did. But the book within the Jewish tradition is about the fact that I cannot and I cannot give you a definitive answer around the why. I can't give you a definitive answer.

38:06 I can tell you that every human being will experience a form of pain. that there will be suffering. Everyone in here, there is a democratic character to something known as death because everyone here will experience it and will experience someone who will pass away and deal with the grief around it. Here's the beautiful thing that we often miss in Scripture. Even with the questions, they're still in communication with God. I have a question. I'm raising that question. And so the psalm of disorientation is the psalm that says when stuff just breaks loose in your life, consider and answer me, O Lord, my God.

39:04 And you know, there's a question mark after that. So it's really like, consider and answer me, O Lord, my God. Now, the psalmist is still being respectful. by saying, oh Lord, my God. Still being respectful, sharing out of that, and we need to raise the question, my Lord, is that Yahweh, Elohim? We talked about a couple of weeks ago how you're saying, this is probably the Yahweh statement. My God. And making this statement, give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death. In other words, give me an answer or just let me die. And my enemy will say, I have prevailed. My foes shall rejoice because I'm shaken, but I trusted in your steadfast love.

39:57 My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. But this is a psalm of disorientation. And I'm here to let you know, everyone is going to have that psalm in their life. Now, you will have a psalm of orientation, but you're going to have a psalm of disorientation. And I know that there are people out there that say, if you do X, Y, and Z, nothing bad will happen in your life. That is a lie. It is a lie. It is in this journey that we are on, that we grow and we develop. That is important for us. So the psalm of orientation, the psalm of disorientation. And then I got to get y'all to a psalm of new orientation or reorientation. Now, Brueggemann did the research.

40:57 He's the scholar. He found this out, which was so beautiful, is that when you've been through something and you come on the other side of it, that's the psalm of reorientation. Because you still remember where you used to be, but now you've come through on the other side. It's not forgetting what happened. It's that you got a new perspective now. And so the psalm of new orientation of reorientation says, I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and did not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried to you for help and you have healed me. O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol.

41:53 Now, Sheol is the land of the dead. Restored me to life from among those gone down to the pit. Sing, pray. See, you sing different after you come through. You can't. See, the folk who just have a psalm of orientation, they got cute songs. But after you've had a psalm of disorientation, and then you come to the psalm of reorientation, you have a different, there's a different quality to how you sing. Let me give a prime example. there's this wonderful story about two individuals who were reciting the 23rd Psalm. And one person was, he was a British actor or something of that nature, and he recited the 23rd Psalm, recited it beautifully, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not warn.

42:46 Went on and said it beautifully. And people stood and clapped, and they wanted an encore, encore, encore, encore. Then this country preacher got up there. And the country preacher, he didn't say the Lord. He said Lord. You know, he didn't have, you know, all of the articulation of the actor. But by the time he finished, everybody was crying. And the actor said to this country preacher, he said, How come when I recite the 23rd Psalm, people clap and cheer? But when you recite it, people weep. And the country preacher said these words. He says, you know the 23rd Psalm.

43:39 I know the shepherd. there's a difference. When you are in a psalm of reorientation, you have not only been through, but you also, you know that shepherd. And so it's the psalm of reorientation. And so when we look at, now let's go to the 23rd psalm. Now here's the beautiful thing about the 23rd psalm. this is a psalm of orientation and reorientation depending on where you are in your journey. So the one who's never been through can read the 23rd Psalm and it speaks in a certain way. But for those of you who've walked through the valley and you've had the shadow of death cover you, You can hear it and read it in a radically different way.

44:41 My father, I love this sermon that he would tell. He would close this sermon out on the 23rd Psalm. And he told a story that he heard years ago. He was talking about you will walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil. He tells this story, and I hope I tell it right. It is a wonderful story where he tells a story of the fact that there was a young woman who was leaving a particular institution downtown in some particular town. And she noticed that there were some men following her. She had to leave out of this building, came through an alley, and there were some men who were following her. And she had some food with her. And what she decided to do, she saw some stray dogs. And so she started dropping some food behind her. And the dogs followed her. And the enemies against her didn't want to get near the dogs.

45:40 But what my father does that I thought was just so beautiful and just really creative, he said she walked through the alley. He said, but she walked through the alley and feared. But you must understand that some of us have been walking through the alley. If you put a V, it's valley. But when you drop the V, it's the alley. Then he reads the psalm again. He says, they that walk through the alley of the shadow of death will fear no evil. Sometimes you got to drop a tree. and your help will come in that moment. So this is a psalm of reorientation and orientation at the same time. Now, with that understanding of the psalm, knowing that there are three ways to understand the psalms in general, gives us now a different way to understand it.

46:48 So here is your homework. We have been doing that. Who's going to do their homework? Don't put your hand up if you're not going to do your homework. Do not put your hand up if you are a non-homework person. All right? You're going to do it. You got receipts? Okay, thank you. Thank you. We want you to do your homework. Here is your homework. Your homework. now that you have this context is you are to read again we're doing this slow reading of scripture slow down and I want you to read the 23rd Psalm listen now read it from your moment of orientation before you went through disorientation read it that way Can you go back? Well, you can think through it. How would you have read then?

47:49 You know, when you didn't know. You ain't been through no valley. You know, when you were six. You didn't get there yet. But I want you to then read the psalm as a psalm of reorientation. what have you come through?

48:15 And think about that before you read. What was the valley or the drop the V? The alley that you went through. It will read differently. It will sound different when you bring your full self to the scripture. then read it as you are in the alley.

48:45 Because it says, here's the beautiful thing about this. Some of us, some alleys or valleys are 500 feet. Some are, we don't know how long they are, but they're limited. It's not possible to have an eternal valley. because here's the thing. Every valley is connected to a mountain. And when you get out of your valley, you eventually find yourself. But here's a peculiar thing. Mountains are not made for travel. Valleys are.

49:28 Mountains give you vision of where you can be in the future. but in order to get to your next mountain guess what So the question is, do you want to stay in the valley or do you want to reach the next mountain? And that becomes a serious question for us moving through that moment. So you've got to read that away. Now here's the final piece of your homework. Y'all going to do your homework? Y'all going to do your homework? Y'all going to do your homework? You going to do your homework? Okay, you going to do your homework? Y'all going to do your homework? Okay. All right. Here's your final piece of homework. find your favorite poem. What is your favorite poem? Your favorite poem? I'm not asking you right now. You should think about it. What's your favorite poem? You're going to find a favorite poem. And then for those of you who are poets, I want you to write at least a stanza a poem based on Psalm 23.

50:30 Now some of y'all just said I ain't doing that homework right now. You got to get the other portion of the homework right. All right. But for those of you and some of you, I'm not going to call none of y'all out, but some of you all write. You write poetry. You write it yourself. I'm not going to mention your name, Robert. I'm not going to do that. And go ahead and write it based on Psalm 23. What would that poem look like? Just a stanza. You don't got to do the whole thing. Just a stanza. Just one stanza. And this is a part of spiritual formation of, again, allowing the word to rest in us, to have a deeper understanding of it, and in the way in which the ancient tradition of slowing us down. Slowing us down. And so I want to offer this prayer as we close out tonight.

51:24 Oh, I kept you all five minutes over. My apologies. I always like to try to close on time. I want to offer this blessing. Offer this blessing. And blessings is what you are passing on something to someone else. So I'm just going to ask that you keep your eyes open. I want to pass this blessing on to you. may the spirit of God rest upon you may you embrace the psalms of orientation and may you not be completely discouraged by your own psalms of disorientation may you make it through every stanza in your life