The brightness of Lent is inevitable. The Lenten season has just begun, and yet already the grass is getting greener, the sky is clear, and it truly feels like Spring. New creation is starting to sprout, it’s unavoidable. Like the first six verses tell us, God’s creation; the grass, the breeze, the sun are all “proclaiming the glory of God,” (Psalm 19:1), reminded us that the Resurrection is a universal resurrection, a resurrection of all creation, of which we get to play a small part of. The first six verses of this Psalm reveal the universality, the magnitude of the Resurrection as we read during the Lenten season.
But of course God’s glory does not stop there, but the psalmist turns us to the law of the Lord. In the midst of the splendor of the heavens wordlessly proclaiming God’s glory, Jesus’ resurrection, the law of the Lord is “reviving the soul… making wise the simple… rejoicing the heart… enlightening the eyes,” (Psalm 19:7,8). This Lenten season, surrounded by creation proclaiming God’s glory, God is transforming our hearts, our souls, our eyes. As creation is reborn with the Spring, so too are our bodies, our souls, our hearts being reborn through God’s law, God’s love.
The psalm ends by reminding us of the “bright sadness” of Lent. Amid the new birth all around us, we turn inward and are reminded of our brokenness, reminded that often our own lives don’t bear as much of the fruits of new creation as we hope. The psalmist says, “but who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults,” (Psalm 19:12), with the underlying assumption being of course that there are errors and hidden faults in us. That even as we see God’s glory surrounding us, we know that we err, that we are not always participating in new creation, but participating in death. The beauty of all creation proclaiming God’s glory, and our desire to be a part of it is threatened by our “hidden faults,” the sins that needed Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, His condescension in love to reconcile us to God, to allow us to live in and participate with new creation.
May this week we see with our eyes, heart, and soul the new creation springing up around us, and not lose sight of the Passion of Jesus that calls us to join and participate in the inevitable brightness of Lent, of new creation, of life with and through Jesus.
- Dylan F.