Today’s
Scripture Reading (July 20, 2019): Psalm
113 & 114
What do these things have in common: broken bones, migraines, kidney
stones, gallstones, urinary tract infections, root canals, and surgery? If your
“Jeopardy” answer is “What are things that hurt?” you would be correct. But
according to a recent article on the “Very Well Family” website, a more precise
answer is “What hurts more than childbirth?” I have to admit that sometimes I
wish we would talk more about what hurts more than the pains of childbirth. I
know, my women friends like to brag that a man would never be able to survive
the pain, and that is why God gave the burden to the females of the species.
But our bragging about the pain of childbirth can have some unintended
consequences.
I have a young friend who is part of those consequences. She
recently married her High School sweetheart, but she also admits that she does
not want children. The reason? She is scared of the birth process. She has
heard many well-meaning women talk about how painful it is to give birth, and
she is not sure that she wants to put herself through that kind of pain. Why
would anyone want that experience? So sometimes it is good to understand that
there are ordinary things of life that are more painful than childbirth. And
that the childbirth experience is not the same for any two women.
But the difference that sets childbirth apart from a migraine or a
kidney stone is that there is a positive result or reason for the pain in the
end. In every one of these other cases, the goal is to just get to the other
side and continue with life. But in the case of childbirth, the goal is the
child; a child who will stay with you enriching your experience long after the
pain has ceased. The focus of childbirth is never the pain that a woman goes
through in order to give birth. The goal is the child who depends on its mother
for life and guidance and who will make a positive difference in our world many
years down the line.
We often miss the Psalmists point in the contemporary translations
of this Psalm. It is not until this point that God is actually named. Here, for
the first time in the Psalm, he is Adonai, the Lord. He is the God of Jacob. Up
until this point, we have only had questions. Why did the earth shake with pain
as the Red Sea fled or as the Jordan River turned back on its heels and
retreated? Why did the ground shake and the hills dance at Mount Sinai at the
presence of God? Was it just the natural pain of the planet, or was there a higher
purpose involved? This is the grand question that the Psalmist is attempting to
ask.
And the Psalmist has an answer. All of this trembling of the earth
had a great purpose. “Tremble, earth” or maybe better, “Exist in pain, you
earth” because you are about to give birth to a nation. The God of Jacob is
going to do this. Out of Egypt, like a baby traversing the birth canal, is
coming Israel. And the earth will tremble in the pain of its birth.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Psalm 115
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