Brainstorm in the snow

The snow just doesn’t seem to want to leave us alone this year. I woke this morning to a dusting of snow instead of the charming, sunny, and warm weather that one would expect in the spring. And how did this affect me? It inspired me. I’ve been working a lot with lamentory psalms lately. As a student and fledgling scholar of the Hebrew Bible I cannot help but think of this weather (which should be foreign to spring) as the insidious other, the unnamed chaotic “enemy” which lingers throughout the psalms of lament. This chaotic force drew me to Ps. 147—a song that should stir emotion in any Christian— no, any human. This lament (presumably exilic) draws upon the raw emotive force of the psalmist. The nation is exiled. There is no reason for song. There is no reason for life. And to top it off – those who besieged Jerusalem and set the people into exile bring deep shame to the psalmist and his people, “Sing us one of the songs from Zion.” A regular feature in a psalm of lament is imprecatory – a vengeance fantasy or cursing of one’s enemies (or wishing YHWH’s wrath upon ones enemies). The psalmist closes his song with a blessing on those who seizes his enemy’s babies and dashes them against the rocks! Ouch! Certainly the “other” in this psalm of lament is a real historical evil (namely the Babylonians). The “other” here is mythologized as “Chaos.” The babies, here, are the offspring of said Chaos. Considering this, I looked out my window this morning at the snow and sympathized with the psalmist. The clouds were my Chaos – and the snowflakes, little white-hell spawn. I made it a point today to catch as many of these little buggers on my tongue - sending them back to oblivion. I also went well out of my way to scrape together a snow ball and smash it against my apartment complex. Something is wrong with me. I think I need to go to bed. It’s been a long day.

- Dan