[Jewish] [Mindful Torah] Psalm for Friday: Psalm 93, Verse 3

[Rabbi Steven Nathan]

The floods have lifted up, O God, the floods have lifted up their
voice; The floods lift up their waves.

The psalms are filled with anthropomorphic images of the natural world.
Mountains skip and jump, heavens rejoice, the land celebrates, and here
the waters are singing or shouting and the waves are the percussive
accompaniment. All of these psalms remind us of our connection to the
created world. All is connected to God. All is a part of God. All is
God.
In psalm 93 the Hebrew word naharot נהרות, almost universally
translated as "floods" is not the same word used for THE flood in
Noah's time (the word there is מבול mabul). Here the flood waters are
powerful, but they are not destructive. Instead, they are lifting up
their voices and crashing their waves for God. They are celebrating
God's existance. They are celebrating the universe of which they are a
part.
And yet, as with all bodies of water on this earth, rising up can also
bring destruction. This is not the case here. This reminds us that
things are never all one way or the other. That which one person labels
as 'good' or 'beautiful' another may label as 'bad' or 'ugly'.
Ultimately labels are all subjective. Yet there is an ultimate Truth
that underlies everything. The Truth about the waters is that they are
waters. The Truth about the mountains is that they are mountains. The
Truth about human beings is that they are human beings. The Truth about
everything and everyone is that we are One with and within the Divine.
It is so easy for us to judge. It is so easy for us to fear certain
things and to be attracted to others. Yet, just as the waters can be
feared or can draw us in, so too all beings contain within them
inherent contradictions. Only the connection to the Divine is the
underlying, unchanging Truth.
The next time we react in a habitual way to something or someone, the
next time we are judgmental, let us remember to look with equanimity,
composure and clarity. If we do so, perhaps we will be able to hear the
singing and clapping of the waves beneath what we may have believed to
be dangerous or threatening waters.
There is a melody to the universe that is within all things, if we just
listen and pay attention. And that melody is the song of the Divine.

--
Posted By Rabbi Steven Nathan to Mindful Torah at 5/07/2010 12:18:00 AM
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