embodying song
As you go about your day, notice when you choose to reach out to others. Notice the warmth of a handshake or hug. If physical contact is not your thing, how might your words wrap people in warmth?
Psalm 131:2 But I have balanced out and stilled my soul like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child on my lap.
Psalm 131’s first verse refocused our thoughts to a small, manageable scope. The beginning of verse 2 re-collected those thoughts into our bodies, or “bodyminds.”
Now the psalm continues its recentering work with a maternal image of spiritual soothing.
The Hebrew can give translators trouble — some say “my soul within me is like a weaned child”; but I prefer to translate the preposition al to read, “my soul is like the weaned child upon me.”
With this reading, metaphor and reality mingle: the psalmist holds a child in her lap as she writes, and uses this embodied experience to influence her internal state.
Imagining the psalmist with a child snuggled into her lap brings the text to life for me. I can remember that the composer was once flesh and blood, just like me.
They lived thousands of years ago, but they found soul-deep comfort in the warmth of another body, just like I can.
An embodied faith can feel like a struggle sometimes. Yet, this is the vessel we have to connect with one another.
As you go about your day, notice when you choose to reach out to others. Notice the warmth of a handshake or hug. If physical contact is not your thing, how might you choose words that wrap people in warmth today?
—Avery Arden