Psalm 31: 7-8 NKJV:
I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy,
For you have considered my trouble;
You have known my soul in adversities
And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a wide place
What I love about Psalm 31 is that it, like many
psalms, is a rollercoaster of praise and lament. The verse immediately
following our scripture is, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble”
(31:9), which seems counterintuitive to the message of the previous verses. Can
David be so inconsistent? Why, in praising the Lord, does David not provide a
more cohesive image of salvation from suffering?
As I reflect on my experience with Christ and my
experience here at Bucknell, the flip-flopping of David’s psalm appears more
and more a holistic interpretation of life rather than a fragmented one.
When I arrived at Bucknell in August of 2018, I
had been saved for two months. During the summer between my undergraduate
graduation and my entrance to Bucknell, my best friend convinced me to work at a
Christian summer camp. I was to be a camp counselor. Leading bible study. Never
mind the fact that I was terrified of kids and most decidedly agonistic. The
fact of the matter was that I was broke, needed part time work, and, contrary
to popular opinion, no one would hire me to cashier with an English degree. My
options were slim, and the space I had to maneuver was narrow. Camp seemed like
my only option, the barest toehold to push myself onto the next stage in life
where I would be back to feeling comfortable in academics. I figured that the
kids I could get used to, and the religion I could fake.
Continue reading “A Wide Place – Tabitha Fisher M’20”
