Psalms Word & Image: Psalm 104 & John James Audubon



Rough-legged Falcon, John James Audubon

Psalm 104

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, You are very great:
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment,
Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.

He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters,
Who makes the clouds His chariot,
Who walks on the wings of the wind,
Who makes His angels spirits,
His ministers a flame of fire.

 

The Fish Hawk or Osprey, Detail of Plate 81 of The Birds of America, John James Audubon,

You who laid the foundations of the earth,
So that it should not be moved forever,
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
The waters stood above the mountains.
At Your rebuke they fled;
At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.
They went up over the mountains;
They went down into the valleys,
To the place which You founded for them.
You have set a boundary that they may not pass over,
That they may not return to cover the earth.

 

American Stork, John James Audubon

He sends the springs into the valleys;
They flow among the hills.
They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
By them the birds of the heavens have their home;
They sing among the branches.
He waters the hills from His upper chambers;
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works.

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the service of man,
That he may bring forth food from the earth,
And wine that makes glad the heart of man,
Oil to make his face shine,
And bread which strengthens man’s heart.
The trees of the Lord are full of sap,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
Where the birds make their nests;
The stork has her home in the fir trees.

 

American Badger, Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, John James Audubon

The high hills are for the wild goats;
The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers.

He appointed the moon for seasons;
The sun knows its going down.
You make darkness, and it is night,
In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
The young lions roar after their prey,
And seek their food from God.
When the sun rises, they gather together
And lie down in their dens.
Man goes out to his work

And to his labor until the evening.

 

The Osprey and the Otter and the Salmon, John James Audubon

O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions—
This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great.
There the ships sail about;
There is that Leviathan
Which You have made to play there.

 

Red Texan Wolf, Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, John James Audubon 

These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth.

 

Iceland or Jer Falcon, John James Audubon

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
May the Lord rejoice in His works.
He looks on the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the hills, and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
May my meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the Lord.
May sinners be consumed from the earth,
And the wicked be no more.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!

Empty Tomb, Full Faith

ODD FELLOWS REST, TOMB WITH FERN, Sandra Russell Clark

John 20:1-9

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.

In her photography series Elysium Sandra Russell Clark explores the cities of the dead. The title comes from the Ancient Greeks' notion of an afterlife abode that was separate from Hades (sometimes referred to as Elysian Fields). It was a place reserved for mortals "chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic." Sandra Russell Clark's Elysium refers to a place more personally familiar to me. She and I both share our birthplace in the city of New Orleans. New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana holds fast as a center of Catholicism embedded within the overall Protestant stronghold of the Deep South, while simultaneously flirting for tourists with its historic connections to the folk religion of Voodoo. It is a city that has its seasons of devout religious fervor and secular hedonism. In the midst of this city life of contrasts is set the reminder of death and the question of the afterlife: our historic cemeteries. Since New Orleans is below sea level our graves are traditionally not underground but rather above ground. Our cemeteries are ornate white wash neighborhoods for our ancestors: cities of the dead. Walking through the rows of domiciles of the departed you can chart three four centuries of our former residents form the great and notorious to the humble. The deceased are not interred into the ground but rather into tombs, like Jesus was. The scripture reading for this Easter Sunday doesn't feature Jesus. It doesn't even feature Jesus' dead body. It actually features the absence of Jesus and evidence that he  had once been in this scene: linen burial cloths and a handkerchief. It costars three followers of Jesus: Mary Magdalene, Peter and an unnamed disciple whom Jesus loved. But the star of this scene is the scene... the setting. The star is the tomb. It is an empty tomb, yet it is full. Jesus no longer resides there but one by one we encounter his followers in this scene. They too were like this tomb, empty shells that once housed death. The thing that the tomb lacked to fulfill its purpose is that which the followers of Jesus would receive. These early Christians would go on to see Jesus and after he ascended into Heaven they would later receive his Holy Spirit. Jesus would come to reside in their heart but never again in the tomb.

Death to Sin

Art is not forgiving of people's past... especially religious art. You are forever depicted in each painting or sculpture bearing a symbol of what you are most famous for. It is a tool to make the image easily identifiable for the viewer and cue their memory of the narrative surrounding them. For some it may be that of a prophet, beggar, king, soldier, martyr or virgin. For Mary Magdalene it is that of a prostitute. In most imagery she is clad in the scarlet red of harlotry. Not far from the Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the are near French Quarter and Basin Street where Storyville once stood. Famous for being one of the birthplaces of Jazz, it was also New Orleans' turn of the century red light district where prostitution was legal. Just like in the case of Mary Magdalene its historic reputation has stuck. Still today much of the city's gentleman's clubs and illegal sex workers can be found there. Although society is slowly drifting towards removing the stigma associated with people who work in this industry, the physical, emotional and spiritual damage that can come to those involved in these trades still remains. All to often it is a lifestyle of sin that those who become engaged in to make ends meet become trapped in permanently by the threat of physical violence. This is the life that Mary Magdalene once knew. Prostitution was a tomb that she lived in, risking physical death from disease and spiritual death through alienation from God. Even if she knew that her life was in spiritual death, who knows if leaving it meant risking physical death by the hands of her employer? It appears to be a risk that she was willing to make. In Christ she saw life eternal and a new start at the present life. Christ had risen her from the shame of her past life and she would soon encounter him as he stood victorious having bought her eternal life. It all started because Mary Magdalene chose to leave spiritual death by putting death to sin in her life. She forsook her former life and took up the life that Christ had for her. She is an example to us all that no matter the risk deciding to follow Christ is the most life giving decision. It is an act of faith that removes spiritual death from sin and replaces it as a life of holiness. 

Death to Self

The way that you can recognize the tombs in New Orleans and learn about the life of those that are interred is by reading their tombstone. Simple enough because it is the same way the world over. The tombstone tells you the deceased name, lifespan and maybe something about their vocation, death or a revealing quote. All of these collectively reveal the person's identity but the greatest of them is the person's name. Ironically that is what is left out of the description of the first Disciple that entered Jesus' tomb. He is only revealed as "The other Disciple." Yet we do know a few things about what he did. Apparently he was a fast runner, he was a good reader of real life context clues, he had faith and Jesus loved him. The greatest part of his identity has been hidden from us... or is it? In the end what is the most important thing in life: who we are or what we do. Doesn't what we do reveal who we really are? Doesn't it reveal our character? While our surname that goes on the top of our tombstone reveals who our family was our character is a better portrait of us as an individual. There is yet another revealing detail that the author of this Gospel has left us in saying that he was the "disciple whom Jesus loved." Most scholars see this as a sign that this is referring to St. John, but it even tells us more than his identity it tells us his relationship to God. While it is good to uphold your character so that your fellow man may know who you truly are, only the virtues of faith and love can reveal who you are to God. Sure God is omniscient and knows who everyone is, but can he consider you a friend? Can he consider you his child? He can if you put to death your identity and take up the identity of Christ. That is the paradox of Christianity. You become your true self (the one that you were designed to be when you put death to the "self." That does not mean that all Christians become the same straight laced, eurocentric, 1950's cornball. Your diversity, quirks and individual gifts are needed. Don't shave off your mullet! It means that you deny your self and take your cross daily and follow Jesus. It is lining your will with the will of God and pursuing less of your whims and more of the general good of those that God has called you to serve. It is the death of selfishness and the birth of Love. It is decreasing our selves so that Christ might increase in us. It allowing space for love and action for others in our lives. It is doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is not just abstaining from sin against others but actively pursuing works of righteousness that would benefit others. It is an act of faith that puts to death selfish love but opens up your life to selfless love. It is what Jesus did out of love for us and it is what he loves to see in others. After all, God is Love.

Death As Service

Besides being a resting place for the dead the cemeteries of New Orleans are tourist attraction. Most things in New Orleans are a tourist attraction. After losses in the Gulf of Mexico oil industry in the early 1980's tourism took over as main engine of the economy in New Orleans. This became complicated in the early 1990's when violence started rising in the city. Just like much of the late 80's/early 90's violence in America it was mostly due to the illegal drug trade and easy access to firearms. The surge in violence spread crime to those who were unconnected to the drug trade and often normal robberies turned into murders. Things were at their worse when tourists started to be attacked while visiting the cemeteries. The sad irony was that people were killed in the area set aside to house and honor the dead. For sometime after that everyone was on guard while in cemeteries since they had now been deemed dangerous neighborhoods. Walking in the midst of this area surrounded by death made one consider his own demise. When Peter entered Christ's tom he was not considering his own mortality. He was just looking to retrieve the body of his rabbi. When Peter first encountered the risen Christ he was not considering his own mortality. He was just celebrating that Christ was risen from the grave. But then Jesus stuck around... for forty days. While Jesus was around for these forty days Peter was not considering his own mortality. Why should he? He had just experienced Jesus defeat death! But Jesus had a conversation with Peter where he asked him to consider his own mortality. He actually spelled out the way that Peter would die: he would one day be crucified. Then Jesus said that Peter's martyrdom would glorify God. Peter was a great Disciple/Apostle that was called to many great things that would give God glory. He would preach the sermon on Pentecost day that would ring thousands of souls to Christ. He would write portions of Scripture. He would perform miracles. He would act as a missionary. Tradition holds that he even founded the first church in Rome and served as its first Bishop. Even amongst all of these accolades Jesus highlights his suffering and death as his greatest service to God. Now most Christians have not and will not be called for martyrdom (that's just math). However, all Christians must be willing to make a sacrifice in their service to God. At times it may be something that you have proven weak in the past. That was the case with Peter (who had previously denied the Lord to escape danger). Yet we must remember that whatever the Lord calls us to, he will equip us for. My personal wish is that the Lord has called me to eat ice cream to his glory... but I doubt that this is the case. Whatever we discover it is the Lord is equipping us for we have faith in God that in the end His will is for the good. I imagine that Peter faced his martyrdom with courage because he knew from meeting the risen Lord that this death was not an eternal one. This death was just a doorway to eternal life. Peter chose an act of faith that put death to death and left room for eternal life.

Jesus was not from New Orleans. He could not be held in any tomb despite its Antebellum charm or no how Anne Rice-beautiful and Gothic it may be. Jesus was not a Greek nor did he share spiritual ideas with the Greeks. He was a Hebrew who worshiped the God of Israel. Yet the idea of Elysium is parallel to a notion that he preached. Yes of course their are the obvious parallels of Hades/Hell and Elysium/Heaven but I wonder if you notice another element to this analogy that may be a little more subtle. The city that Jesus focused his message on was not just a city of the dead. It was a freedom from the city of the living dead. It was a kingdom that was not just set aside for the after life but one that offered a new life for the reborn. This place that housed citizens from both the land of the living and dead is the Kingdom of God. You may know it as Heaven but the truth of it may be contrary to some of your preconceived notions. God's kingdom is not just a place for good dead people. It is more than a geographical place, it is a reality that God's children live in: be they in this part of life or the afterlife. God's kingdom is where God's reign is. It is the king's domain. It is not just a future designated time or separate space from where you are now. As Jesus put it "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Or later when he said "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." In other words the Kingdom of Heaven is here, now, within your very body. Yes the kingdom of Heaven is also where a bunch of good dead people are, if those good dead people (just like you) have received Christ. That is the key: the kingdom of Heaven is Christ. The kingdom of Heaven is the Body of Christ, which is all believers across space and time that worked out the grace, faith and mercy that they have received from God. Similar to Elysium the Kingdom of God is a gathering of  mortals chosen by God, the righteous. Our righteousness resides not in any great gift that we naturally posses but rather through the great gift of Grace that God has given us. It is subsequent gifts of mercy and love that we receive daily from this loving God that empower us to work the works of Jesus in our own age. The hope of all of the followers of Jesus that originally encountered his empty tomb that Sunday morning was that they would find Jesus. The hope of all current followers of Jesus this morning is the same. How overjoyed Mary, Peter and the unnamed disciple must have been when they encountered a living Jesus and not a dead one. How overjoyed we will be when we encounter a living faith and not a dead one. It is that faith in a living God that dwells within us through his Holy Spirit that allows us to die to sin, make sacrifices and die to self. God has cleared the death out of our mortal shells and renovated us into temples of the living God. In the end we as believers are all empty tombs full of faith displaying evidence of a risen Lord.

 

 

Community Dwelling



Swoon, wheat paste hand colored woodcut print on public wall 

Psalm 90

A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God...

 

Art ownership is usually something that we associate with home ownership. It is not that one has to be rich to buy art (but it sure does help) but it helps if you have a wall (or refrigerator) to hang your paintings on. So whether it is a house, an apartment or that cosmopolitan hybrid commonly known as a condo, art is often something that we put in our homes: a secondary consideration after we find shelter. After the cavemen moved into caves they then consulted the nearest interior designer to advise them on what cave paintings to display on their walls. Art is a way for us to mark our place in the world?  But what about the homeless: those without homes? What about refugees: those without a homeland? Where is the dwelling place in which they place their treasure? I believe that an answer can be found between one of my favorite psalms and one of my favorite street artists. Moses wrote Psalm 90 understanding what it was like to not have a home or a country. He was the leader of a nation of newly emancipated slaves that would wander the wilderness for the last 40 years of his life. Generations earlier Abraham, the forefathers of the Jewish people, had been called by God to leave his hometown (in present-day Iraq) and sojourn to a foreign land that would be his children's inheritance. God chose to be the god of pilgrims, nomads and freed slaves, creating a community where none had existed before. To these hoards of believers God would reveal Himself to be their true home. Street Artist Swoon has made a name for herself by creating artworks that don't reside within homes but rather create a community themselves. She first garnered attention by posting her wheat paste prints on public walls. These prints were beautiful in themselves and showed the beauty of the the overlooked members of the neighborhoods where the pictures where posted.  Both Moses and Swoon became members of communities of the marginalized. It is the marginalized, overlooked and rejected that God invites into His home. He places them on a pedestal as His work of art and values them as His treasures.



Swoon, Konbit Shelter Project, Haiti



...You turn man to destruction,And say, “Return, O children of men.”

For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.
You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like grass which grows up:
In the morning it flourishes and grows up;
In the evening it is cut down and withers...

 

As beautiful as Swoon's prints are they still are temporary. They are made of wheat paste and posted publicly where they will be weathered by the elements. At the end of the day wheat is just a grass and just like Psalm 90 says it withers away. As beautiful and honorable as they are the people who are the subjects of Swoon's art will also pass away some day. Such is the fate of men and grass. Psalm 90 is all about the juxtaposition of the eternal nature of God and temporariness of Man. People understand things better when they have a point of measurement to compare a subject with. Moses compares the immenseness of God and eternity with the frailty of Man. It is hard to grasp the meaning of both of these subjects (God and eternity). Being that we cannot fully define them experientially, we rely on metaphors to show what they are like or what they are "greater than." Moses knew that his readers knew what a year was because they had experienced many of them. Therefore they could imagine what a thousand of them could be like It is much greater than the year that they understood. Yet a thousand years are nothing in the sight of the Lord's eternal vantage point. God was greater than even their perception of Time. Moses was revealing that this God that was greater than everything was as intimate and warm to the Israelites as a home. He was a solid home that would protect them from the storms of life. God is a house built upon rock with a solid foundation that can withstand tragedy. When a tragic earthquake struck the nation of Haiti in 2010 many people around the globe responded through giving. This calamity had destroyed houses, hospitals and government buildings alike. Those that were able travelled to Haiti and assisted with the rebuilding. Swoon used her own creativity in combination with science and communal effort to design a new earthquake resistant community in Haiti. The Konbit Shelter Project constructed adobe homes for earthquake victims that were dome shaped to withstand earthquakes of similar size. It also utilized local materials, coil-type construction that you see in pottery and a building material called super adobe invented by the Iranian born architect and humanitarian Nader Khalili. When Moses talks of man's fragility he contrasts it with God's solidity, firmness and endurance. God is like one of Swoon's Konbit shelters. When life gives us tragedies that tosses us to and fro, sifting us like wheat, God stands strong. Those who dwell in Him are protected fro danger. 





Swoon, Swimming Cities of Serenissima, Venice, Italy

...For we have been consumed by Your anger,

And by Your wrath we are terrified.
You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;
We finish our years like a sigh.
The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom...

 

 Moses speaks of God "carry(ing) them away like a flood" and later goes on to discuss Man's frailty in the face of God's wrath: our moral deficiency faced with His judgments. It is in Moses' book of Genesis that we discover that God had indeed judged Mankind with a flood. None was found righteous save for one man (Noah) and his family. To escape His wrath God inspired Noah to create a large boat (the Ark) with which to weather the storms with a community of his family and pairs of the world's animals). Like Noah, Swoon also engaged in some amateur boat making. Hers was not one great boat but rather an armada of several ramshackle raft creations that look like they were created by objects found in Fred Sanford's junkyard. At first Swoon gathered her friends and sailed up rivers in America but later when she was selected to be the representative artist for the United States at the prestigious Venice Biennale, she upped the ante. The crew created rafts made of New York City garbage and sailed into the Grand Canal of the city of Venice, Italy. Swoon had taken a remnant from the refuse and created a seaworthy vessel for this new community that she had created. Now just like the Creation story in Genesis there is debate amongst Christians about the Flood narrative. Was it a deluge that encased the whole world, the whole known world or just Noah's immediate world. Whichever you chose to believe the themes of the story are the same: God judges and God saves. Both damnation and salvation, justice and mercy are delivered from the Sovereign of the Universe. Both seem to fulfill the Lord's purpose of redemption and renewal. After the Great Flood, Noah's family and the pairs of animals went and fulfilled God's earlier command to "be fruit and multiply." But God gave them more commands than He had provided for Adam and Eve, as He made His covenant with Noah He announced a prohibition against murder and set a precedent of demanding justice of all nations. When Moses told this story in Genesis He did so as a precursor to what he would show in the four other books of the Torah/Law. Moses would later tell of God's saving of the nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage, His revelation of the commandments and all of the Law and the subsequent judgment of many who had heard the Law. So Moses would pen this psalm as a testament of all that he had seen concerning Man before God's judgment. Sometimes we don't think about the fact that salvation as an act of judgment as well. When God saved the Israelites it also was an act of judgment against the nation of Egypt. God's mercy towards Israel was an ark of protection against the greater wrath that He was exercising against their captors. We too have an ark of salvation that saves us from God's judgment. This is the Body of Christ. The Church is an assortment of believers around the world like Noah's animals but we come together because God has chosen us worthy to be saved from His wrath. Yet our status of worthiness is not due to anything we have done but rather what Christ has done. Like Swoon when Christ designed his ark he sifted through the refuse. He gathered sinners from the debris of humanity and created a remnant to save. It is with these sinners that Christ found a home. It is to these sinners that Christ is a home. Jesus sails into Heaven upon this ramshackle group of believers. Though we were thrown away before, Christ has redeemed and re purposed us. He has re-commissioned us to be God's armada: not an army of destruction but one of salvation.     

 

Swoon, Music Box, New Orleans

...Return, O Lord!

How long?
And have compassion on Your servants.
Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!
Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,
The years in which we have seen evil.
Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their children.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.

 

New Orleans is a city nestled in the Gulf Coast swamps of Southeast Louisiana. A place where it is not unheard of to live in a houseboat. Yet Swoon did not create arks or houseboats of any type in New Orleans. Swoon made ordinary land based structures but they were made of river refuse and the leftovers from a dilapidated Creole cottage. Swoon built more than a house: she built a shanty town. And to honor New Orleans' musical heritage she built one that actually plays music. All of the buildings and rooms incorporate elements from musical instruments. They also provide a space where local musicians can perform. That is what the Lord's mercy is. It is not just a house to protect us from danger. It is not just an ark to save us from judgment. God's mercy is place of joy. God's mercy is a place of music and singing. When Moses wrote this poem because he continually found himself in God's mercy. God's mercy is a portico in which do dance within. It is a dining hall to sit within and make merriment with family, friends, strangers and enemies. God is a shelter from tears for those who dwell in Him.    

 

A Place of Refuge




Hurricane Solution 3, Terrance Osborne

Psalm 16

A miktam^[a] of David.

Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
I say of the holy people who are in the land,
“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their names on my lips.
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful^[b] one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalms are more than poems. They are songs. They were originally set to music and used in a liturgical setting. And just like the lyrics to any soulful song, anyone can appreciate or enjoy it…but to the reader who has been where the author/songwriter has been, the song takes on a special significance. Its impact has a greater depth. The bond between the writer and the reader/listener is palpable in those moments.  You can feel the music. Psalm 16 is that way for me. It is that way for anyone who, like the writer, has needed God to provide a place of refuge.

Like several other Psalms the writer is David. We think often of his early job as a shepherd and his later career and a king, but how often do we give much contemplation of David’s work as a songwriter? If you, like me, see Scripture as Divinely inspired, then you probably don't give much appreciation to the fact that a man crafted these words, images and tunes. David was the original Indie singer-songwriter... like an ancient, Hebrew Tori Amos... except he wasn't a woman... or played piano ..or got booked for Lilith Fair. Okay so outside of most associations with Tori Amos, the analogy still stands that no matter the tragedy or triumph that David found himself in, he put it all into the song. Whether it was anxiety, joy, shame, worry or hope, David poured his soul into his music that he in return poured out as an offering to God.

It wasn't that long ago that I found myself in a similar place doing a similar thing... and by "It wasn't that long ago" I actually mean "about seven years ago" and by "doing a similar thing" I mean "doing something completely different"... but I was in a similar place (but not geographically). After August 25, 2005 I found myself in need of a refuge. I literally became a refugee. Hurricane Katrina had just (temporarily) destroyed my hometown of New Orleans, La. Now there are several entries I could (and will) write about all of the acts kindness that were bestowed upon me by family members, future in-laws, government agencies, new neighbors and total strangers, but in this blog entry I'd like to focus on one specific refuge that God provided: Art. I had always created Art but after Katrina I entered a new era of productivity in painting. Not only that, I entered a new phase of art appreciation. I studied and delved deeper into reading about art history and researching contemporary artists, like never before. One of these contemporaries was an artist that I was personally familiar with in New Orleans. Terrance Osborne seemed to encapsulate all of the vibrancy, color, energy and Jazz of New Orleans in his paintings. After Katrina his work seemed to take a turn away from the multicolored figurations that he was known for as a student at Xavier University and a toward a kaleidoscope driven, tactile study of the Uptown New Orleans architectural landscape that all of us Katrina refugees missed. A cityscape that we dreamed to see rebuilt. He painted a testament in our hearts that we were not simply refugees but rather evacuees. We were temporarilyevacuated from our great Franco-Afro-Caribbean-American city, but would soon return and reconstruct it to the radiant urban palette of Terrance Osborne's canvas.  

"...because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;"

On second thought maybe my opening statement is slightly incorrect. I said that "Psalms are more than poems. They are songs." A more accurate statement to say would be "All poems, whether, sung or spoken, are songs." I would go even further and say that the Arts of every type (poetry, music, painting) are all songs. They are songs sung in different media. They are sung by our hands, our hearts and our eyes. Sometimes they happen to be the same song. The song that David, Terrance and I all sang was the same. It also happens to be the same song that New Orleans Gospel queen Mahalia Jackson once sang at the March On Washington: “How I Got Over.” This song is one that remembers the trials of the perilous past but recognizes the promise of the godly present. This Psalm was the same song that Jesus sang when he conquered Death, knowing that God had made known to him "the path of life." 

Earlier I spoke of that moment when the bond between the writer and listener of the song becomes palpable. It is in that moment while reading a Psalm that the Holy Spirit can really work and perform its primary profession: that of the Comforter. This song that Jesus and the Psalmist and I all share may start out as the Blues but it finishes as Gospel. This song is my refuge. This song is about my God. ..And my God is a refuge.