We are returning to the Celtic Psalms album for our devotion today. All the arrangements on this album are by Kiran Wimberly. Kiran is a Presbyterian minister from the US who now lives on the North Coast of Ireland (we swapped places!). She is a spiritual director and folk singer, and member of The Corrymeela Community.
Corrymeela was founded in 1965 before "The Troubles" began in Northern Ireland to bring Catholic and Protestants together - their work became even more crucial as the years went on. Corrymeela continues to be a place of healing, reconciliation, storytelling, and resilience today.
This Psalm is a Psalm of longing and resilience, may Kiran's arrangement speak to your soul this day.
Psalm 42
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock,
‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?’
As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.