Crucible of Pain PDF

Crucible of Pain To the choir director concerning the hind of the morning. A psalm of David. 1. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You far from helping me, from the groaning of my words? 2. My God, I cry by day, but You answer not, and at night there is no repose for me. 3. Yet You ar...

Crucible of Pain To the choir director concerning the hind of the morning. A psalm of David. 1. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You far from helping me, from the groaning of my words? 2. My God, I cry by day, but You answer not, and at night there is no repose for me. 3. Yet You are holy, You Who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. 4. Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted and ·you delivered them. 5. They cried unto You and were delivered. They trusted in You and were not ashamed. 6. But I (am) a worm and not a man, a reproach of man and despised by the people. 7. All those that see me mock at me. They open the lip. They wag the head, ( saying) : 8. "He commits his way to Yahweh; let Him deliver him. Let Him rescue him, for He delights in him." 9. Yet You are He that took me from the womb. You caused me to trust upon my mother's breast. 10. Upon You was I cast from my birth. You (are) my God from my mother's womb. 11. Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help. 12. Many bulls have surrounded me, (those) mighty of Bashan have encompassed me. 13. They open their mouth at me, as a ravening and roaring lion. 14. I am poured out like water, and my bones are dislocated. My heart is like wax. It is melted in my innermost part. 15. My strength has dried like a potsherd, my tongue sticks to my jaws, and You lay me in the dust of death. 88 CRUCIBLE OF PAIN 89 16. For dogs have surrounded me. The company of the wicked have enclosed me, like a lion at my hands and feet. 17. I can count all my bones. They look and rejoice over me. 18. They divide my garments among them, and cast lots for my garments. 19. But You, Yahweh, be not far from me; my Strength, hasten to help me. 20. Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the might of the dog. 21. Save me from the mouth of the lion, and from the horns of the wild oxen. Answer me! 22. I will declare Your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will praise You. 23. You that fear Yahweh, praise Him. All the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and fear Him, all the seed of Israel. 24. For He neither despised nor abhorred the oppression of the afflicted, nor hid His face from them, but when they cried unto Him, He heard. 25. I shall praise You in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before those.who fear Him. 26. The afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek Him shall praise Yahweh. May your heart live for ever. 27. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. 28. For the kingdom (is) Yahweh's, and He (is) the ruler over the nations. 29. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship, and all those who are abased shall bow before Him. 30. An offspring shall serve Him. It shall be told of the Lord for a generation. 31. They shall come and declare His righteousness to a peoPSALM 22 ple to he born that He has done it... k 90 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS There is likely no more pressing subject than the meaning of pain. Man cannot escape suffering, but the attitude which he takes toward it may be altered. His response makes th:e difference between emotional health and illness and may demonstrate, if not an insight into the purpose of pain, at least an ability to handle it constructively. PROBLEM The context of the psalmist's question is as significant as the content, and his assumptions about suffering are as imponant as his query concerning why he was subjected to it. One reason the question of pain goes unanswered is that it is asked in a framework where no adequate solution is possible. Consequently, we need to see the perspective from which the_ psalmist views the issue. The Rea/.ity of Pain Earlier we noted that the Scripture makes the realistic assumption that the world has objective reality. There is nothing illusory about pain, whether it comes from a physical wound or from mental anguish. Its resolution inevitably begins with the recognition of its inescapable presence. The significance of the psalmist's position can best be seen by comparing it with a rather diametrically opposed solution, the teaching of Gautama, the alleged founder of Buddhism. Reponed to have died in 545 B.c., Gautama left behind his discovery of the meaning of life, summarized in the Four Noble Truths: 1. Life is suffering. Perhaps the term "unhappiness" or "frustration" would be preferable to "suffering." Gautama observed that finite existence consisted of sickness, old age, death, and the sadness experienced when loved ones are stricken. These frustrations (dukha) constirute the problem of life. 2. Suffering is caused by desire. Frustration is caused by grasping (trishna), asking from life what it cannot give us. It is not simply asking more, but asking at all that perpetuates the self and the frustration which attends it. Man interferes with nature in such a way that he is compelled to continue interfering, and the resolution of each problem creates still other problems. CRUCIBLE OF PAIN 91 3. Desire may be destroyed. The ending of desire is called nirvana, a release or liberation. Nirvana defies precise definition, for the very effort at definition is grasping, and release comes when clutching at life has come to an end. 4. The means of elimination is the Eightfold Path. In summary, the Eightfold Path concerns apprehension and application. Man sees the folly of grasping after the distinction between "I" and "not I," and rises above the phenomenal world through dhyana ( a word best left untranslated, for such words as meditation and absorption are misleading). Gautama took his stance under the Bodhi tree until he knew such destruction was possible, and others have confirmed his discovery. The resolution of suffering offered by Gautama is not unique to Buddhism. It consists of rejecting the essential reality of the empirical world in so far as meaning is concerned, and thus eliminating the issue of pain. Gautama consoled a grieving wido~ who had lost her only son with the observation that she who ha!; many children for whom to care has much suffering, but she ~ho has none has least. Against such a conceptual backdrop, the psalmist's belief sd\,uik. out in bold relief. The resolution of pain consists not in escaping but in engagement, not in ignoring but in heeding the senses, not in rejecting but in entertaining the question which pain raises. Pain is real, and the man-less-pain is a man-less-humanity. To live is to suffer. There is no other world; only the one created in man's imagination conforms to his advantage. To accept one's humanity is to accept this life and the pain that attends it. Quest of Faith ,, A common misconception is that faith asks no questions, presumably because it holds all the needed answers. Such is not the case. Sound faith aids a person in asking profitable questions. The psalmist's query springs from belief rather than unbelief. It addresses God in the time of trouble rather than forsaking Him in order to despair. Faith is as critical to the solution of the problem of pain as admitting the pressing reality of suffering itself. The effort of 92 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS Karl Marx is a negative illustration in point. Marx was a nineteenth-century social refonner who recognized something of the injustice of his time and the affliction which accompanied it. He was concerned with human suffering, but he understood it primarily as a social phenomenon. That is, he saw man essentially as class rather · than as person. Marx held out for the exploited working man a utopia where he would experience "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." The road of faith was blocked to Marx by the apparent indifference of the institutionalized Church. He charged that religion was the opiate of the people, the means of anesthetizing man against social struggle. Conversely, he erred in at least two critical points: failing to take the individual dimension of suffering seriously, and rejecting faith as a workable perspective for resolving the problem. It is unrealistic to suppose that one can substitute concern over tlass struggle for the needs of the individual. A cause which indefipitely postpones personal considerations seems destined to etuate itself by force. The Marxist dogma has proved to be wn opiate to the problem of personal pain. It ignores the issue ch faith has the courage to raise. Every man is important, not simply as a producer or for his value to society, but because he is a noble creature of God. Every issue which troubles him cries for consideration. The fact of suffering demands attention, and the faith of the sufferer comes to his assistance. 1 Confidence· in tr Moral Universe Western man has little problem with the reality of pain, nor does he entertain lightly the role of faith; it is the affirmation of a moral universe which seems questionable. The psalmist's confidence that God is working redemptively with man seems shattered by the bewildering and degenerate aspects of contemporary civilization. God may exist, but we do not understand how He works, least of all in human suffering. Our problem is seeing the unity of purpose in the diversity of events. The issue is anything but new. The effort to find national destiny in the midst of the changing fonunes of war is admirably r CRUCIJ}LE OF PAIN 93 reflected in Homer's Olympian gods~ In a classic?passage he describes the ~ouncil of the gods over ,,th~ mi~~affairs of man. Zeus passes Judgment on the request t ~ y l i e struggle: For which call'd ye; true, they needs must die, But still they claim my care; yet here will I Upon Olympus' lofty ridge remain, And view, serene, the combat: you, the rest, Go, as you let, to Trojans or to Greeks, And at your pleasure either party aid.1 So the gods joined men in mortal combat. The Greek solution was to project the imperfection of humanity and the accidents of !ife~on the gods. The meaning of suffering might not be un~~rstoo~ such, but no doubt the answer had to ~o with the capqce of th. g~ds who involve~ themselves in the affarrs of men. But'"fhe..._.fY. lutton lacked rectitude; the gods were characterized by hwtrai'i"failings. Contemporary handling of the problem is hardly more sophisticated. Suffering is recognized as being an aspect of authentic living-inexplicable, mysterious, but somehow necessary. The issue is demanding, but no solution seems within sight. The psalmist, however, profers the context o(God's moral purpose, a place where faith can ask the important questioh, "Why?,, The believer is not fr~eJ~m.the faq or i.mmune-t:-rdm the stress of sufferine="\ He.Stings to t. situation faith botllim