Precious
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He will reclaim their soul from deceit and violence
And their blood will be precious in his sight.
- Psalm 72: 14
There are different ways to digest the scriptures. Sometimes it’s good to sit down and read through the entirety of one of the gospels. It’s like putting the whole pig on the spit and glutting on all the meat and fat. A full belly. And sometimes it’s good to sit and chew and gnaw on a single verse, or phrase, or even a single word. It’s like sucking the marrow from the bone. From so little comes so much richness and flavor. This latter way of reading the scriptures is an ancient Christian practice called lectio divina which is Latin for divine reading. In lectio divina a small portion of scripture is read and then meditated upon. Now, the habit of our Reformed tradition is to theologically analyze the passage but stop it! We’re not doing that here. We’re not doing that now. Just marinate in it. Soak in it. Let it wash over you. Don’t read it, pray it. Don’t even say it, groan it without words. This is lectio divina. And in the blinding shadow of another tragedy this is, I think, a helpful way to read scripture.
Don’t ever read the Psalms. Pray them. And as we pray Psalm 72 the passage that pricks at my heart is “their blood will be precious in his sight.” It’s such a curious turn of phrase. We find it also in Psalm 116, “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” We summon up this psalm, this prayer, this groan not for analysis. There is nothing to be analyzed. Not now at least. Not now. I only ask that today as a church we might bond our hearts together in lectio divina, a cry of the heart, a groaning without words as we pray together precious, precious, precious. His blood is precious in your sight.