Psalm 16:7-11
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
For you do not give me up to Sheol,
or let your faithful one see the Pit.
You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fulness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
Whereas in English the heart is the seat of the emotions, in Hebrew that is for the mind and will, with emotions (and conscience) seated in the kidneys or belly. So the Hebrew for the opening verse above says that ‘my kidneys instruct me’. It is at night that we feel things, and wonder if we have got things right or wrong. But because our faithful Jesus has risen from the Pit named in these verses, we may keep the Lord always before us, and find the path of life.
16 Bless my Kidneys
‘I bless the Lord who counsels me,
at night my heart [Heb.: my kidneys] instructs me’ v.7
Bless my kidneys, one might say,
reading Hebrew body language
with a knowing smile: away
with careful, icy comprehension,
make for the warm choppy wake
of David, his sweet and salty passion
for a God who wants to ravish,
sandblast, sort and wrap the soul
secure within its deepest wish.
When the sea’s a trampoline,
bouncing plans, churning guts,
settle your skis, laugh, lean
back into the breeze behind,
hold God’s line, let God balance
body fluids, brace your mind.
This Sunday we are ‘in the wake of’ Easter, and in the poem I suggest that we read the Psalms like water-skiers ‘in the wake of David’, since so many feature him in their headings, whether written by him, in honour of him, or just in memory of him. If you read the story of David’s life in the Old Testament, you know that his wake is both warm and choppy, rough and mixed up as ours is. So we can pray these Psalms with confidence, knowing – as David could not have known – that we have a Saviour who has occupied our rough humanity and carried it safely into life eternal.