LENT 2020: Day 9

• LENT 2020: Day 9
• Friday, March 6, 2020:
  Psalm 121; Micah 7:18-20; Romans 3:21-31

“I lift my eyes to the mountains,” says the Psalmist.
    “From where will my help come?”

The language in the Psalm paints a picture of very real threats. Six times, in a mere eight verses, we find the word “guard.” And the word occurs three times in the climatic last two verses.

That kind of danger was very real in the ancient world — and it’s still very real to many today. I can imagine my students in North Memphis reciting this Psalm, for example. 

Just last week, I had to call a parent about her son’s chronic absenteeism. She told me how much she fears her son walking to school. He’s been held at gunpoint — and his older brother was shot and called a few years ago.

That is a level of danger most of us can’t even conceive. It’s why, for the longest time, the Psalms never resonated with me. They just didn’t speak to my experience.

Over time, though, I’ve really started to appreciate the Psalms. I just turned 40, and maybe age makes us more aware that death is coming sooner rather than later.

Lent is the time for us all, even the most privileged among us, to reflect upon our common humanity — and our common mortality. 

But I can’t help to remember that, while we’re all going to die one day, that day is more likely to come sooner for some. Research from Raj Chetty, et al, shows a huge gap in life expectancy (15 years for men, 10 for women) between the richest and the poorest. And that gap is getting wider — it’s grown by over 2 years in the past 20 years.

So, yes, we should reflect on our mortality, and we should look to God for help. But we should reflect on mortality rates — and we should look to use our voices and our power and our influence to push for structural solutions to income inequality.