Psalms for Chicago

I have been thinking more about the psalms. Kathleen Norris expressed an idea that the psalms question all our dignified, American middle-class notions of politeness. She points especially to women who “are conditioned to deny their pain, and to smooth over or ignore the effects of violence, even when it is directed against them.” (Cloister Walk, 94) She wisely links pain and anger, “Anger is one honest reaction to the cost of pain, and the psalms are full of anger.”

My thoughts turn to Derrion Albert, the young man recently murdered by gang violence in South Side, Chicago. He was not involved in a gang but was a bystander and his beating was recorded via cell phone video. His is one of a rampant amount of children’s deaths in that area due to gang violence, which stems from what? Anger? Anger seething in alive and hopeful (and they are hopeful in spite of themselves, because they are human) young men and women who see no options for their future. They are entrenched in poverty, crime, drugs, domestic violence, poor education, distorted values… And the communities suffer endlessly watching their children die. If we can remember that these are misguided human beings caught in a wicked web, we might look at poverty, poor education, and drugs as among the true adversaries and see new value in the psalms: (9:18)

To the nether world the wicked shall turn back,

all the nations that forget God.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

nor shall the hope of the afflicted forever perish.

Rise, O Lord, let not man prevail;

let the nations be judged in your presence.

Strike them with terror, O Lord;

let the nations know that they are but men.