Psalm 41 verse 13 – Endings and Transitions: What is your Indomitable Core?

 October 9, 2018

We are in a season of change and transition. Trees are changing color, marking the beginning of Autumn. The weather has been up and down, warm and cold. The calendar marks the end of summer as September 21, the beginning of Autumn as September 22, but we know it’s not as simple as that. There are summer like days in October, and winter like days in November and December. All part of the indomitable core that makes up a year in Michigan.

The only thing you can count on is change.

Looking for Order in the Book of Psalms

The book of Psalms is broken up into five sections. Each section ends with a doxology, hymn of praise. We have come to the end of the first section with Psalm 41:13, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen!” And so we prepare to begin another section. But what does that mean?

There is no real order to the book of Psalms. Whoever put these poems into the Psalter didn’t organize them by theme or style. Perhaps the book was divided into five sections to mirror the five books of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. The first two sections, through Psalm 72, are alleged to be written by David, but after that it’s anybody’s guess. If considered in terms of Hebrew authorship where works done by a school of writers following one famous individual are given that person’s name, then all the Psalms might be considered by David. But there is no organizing principle.

There are hymns of praise, communal and individual laments, royal psalms, songs of thanksgiving, and enthronement songs, spread throughout the book. They are randomly put together with little rhyme or reason. One section ends and another begins.

Indomitable Core

In the same way, our life may seem to be a random collection of events. There may be times in our life where we can say, “my new life began at this moment; with this new job or that move, I began a new chapter in my life,” still we will carry with us aspects of the life we left behind.

The more things change the more they remain the same. We start new ventures, leave behind old ones, it can be messy; yet there is that within us that remains the same, an indomitable core. All reasons to praise our God. And so the Psalms are broken up into five sections, five endings and beginnings, while still retaining that indomitable core that makes them what they are, the song prayers of the people.

What is your indomitable core, that which remains the same when everything around you is changing?

************************************

This post is part of a series of blog posts on the Psalms. Sign up to follow this blog and and receive a free copy of  Still Dancing, the second book in my Dancing through Life Series.      click here to sign up

(Please note – in order to help ensure you receive email with link to new book, please add my email, patricia@patriciamrobertson.com to your contact list. Some servers are quick to send newsletters to spam or other boxes.)