Biblical Studies Carnivals

O silence, O my heart, O my hope

How difficult it is to think clearly and not be glib after such a great swath of destruction. We have seen so many destructions recently -

• Indonesia - where a friend of mine was and one of whose scholars I recently met at UVic, 
• New Orleans, where my son played in the symphony, 
• Japan, whose debris now washes against our Pacific shores, and now 
• New York in darkness - where my daughter conducts at St Thomas's 5th avenue every second summer and a city which we fell in love with and have visited so frequently these past 6 years, a city where my son grew his violin playing and where my son-in-law took us to the vegetarian restaurant and to hear the jazz in the park in Greenwich Village.

As have many of you, my wife and I walked the entire length of the High Line and more - all along that devastated coast, round about and throughout ground-zero.

And I study the Bible.

What for?

I wait in silence ...
I search for a word ...
Not the one I was searching for: Psalm 27

for he will treasure me in a booth

in a day of evil he will hide me in the secret of his tent

...

what if I had not believed I would see the goodness of יהוה

in the land of the living?

Psalm 29 too is about destruction - the natural order. Destruction followed for Jerusalem too and still they sang and they waited. The Lord sits in this deluge also.

Psalm 48 was what I was searching for

We are in the likeness O God of your loving-kindness

within your temple

I wait with patience too for the carnival from the prior month. Who can write 'carnival' in such a state!

Still we will sing and still we will wait - in that likeness.

The November Biblical Studies Carnival will be hosted here.  I am constructing the carnival as the month progresses. During the month, as you read or write posts, please send your suggestions to dustcarnival at gmail dot com.

It may be a somber carnival.