Today
my lectio divina and Psalm prayers collided.
I am pondering the space between these paradoxical contradictions.
In
the lectionary for Sunday from the Hebrew Scriptures in Exodus 33:12-23, Moses
asks to see the Lord’s glory, to
which the Lord replied (vv. 20,
23).
“You cannot see my face; for no one shall see
me and live. … Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but
my face shall not be seen.”
In the anthropomorphic imagery in this account,
God almost seems to be a giant supernatural being who hides Moses behind an
oversize hand until he can turn away and let Moses see his backside, almost a
cosmic mooning.
After contemplating this, I came to Psalm 17 in
my Psalm prayer rotation to find this in verse 15.
“As for me, I shall behold your face in
righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.”
A number of Psalms speak of looking at the face
of God, but this juxtaposition today prompted me to probe my contemplative
yearning for a glimpse of God. I am not seeking a logical explanation to make
rational sense of the paradox. Rather I am gazing into the space between for
something more mysterious.
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