A Psalm for Surviving a Shipwreck
Ps. 107:22-28
After the storm comes survival, thanksgiving prayers, a chance to live again, better.
The new moon of Elul shines today. It is another day to demand changes.
Yesterday’s psalm was about accountability and remorse. Today’s psalm is about gratitude. Another important way to take stock of life and lift up each moment is to count our blessings and not take for granted the gifts of life - with each moonrise.
With the new Jewish year now a moon away, during these difficult days, the call for the process of Teshuva is accelerated. There is much to reflect on, plenty to feel remorse for, and many ways to amend and begin again with clarity, and commitment to lasting change that will lead to more justice and joy.
As the calendar once again meets our Below the Bible Belt journey, we are invited to participate in both reflection on what’s wrong - and what’s worthy of appreciation. We get to count each blessing, grateful for being alive.
Psalm 107 includes a strange and mysterious series of scribal notation that are part of how scribes have been writing it for as long as anybody knows. Several verses are preceded with what looks like a type of brackets - an inverted Hebrew letter ‘Noon’. This notation appears again in the Book of Wilderness, twice. Nobody quite knows why these are in the scrolls exactly, and there is consensus that the segment alludes to some lost mystery that is waiting to be revealed. The most prosaic speculation is that it’s an internal sign, like an Asterix, that was meant to convey that these might be out of place, but somehow got stuck and transferred as part of the text from generation to generation.
The section with these inverted symbols in psalm 107 is about people who sail the seas and survive the storms:
׆ יוֹרְדֵ֣י הַ֭יָּם בׇּאֳנִיּ֑וֹת עֹשֵׂ֥י מְ֝לָאכָ֗ה בְּמַ֣יִם רַבִּֽים׃ ׆ הֵ֣מָּה רָ֭אוּ מַעֲשֵׂ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה וְ֝נִפְלְאוֹתָ֗יו בִּמְצוּלָֽה׃׆ וַיֹּ֗אמֶר וַֽ֭יַּעֲמֵד ר֣וּחַ סְעָרָ֑ה וַתְּרוֹמֵ֥ם גַּלָּֽיו׃
׆ יַעֲל֣וּ שָׁ֭מַיִם יֵרְד֣וּ תְהוֹמ֑וֹת נַ֝פְשָׁ֗ם בְּרָעָ֥ה תִתְמוֹגָֽג׃ ׆ יָח֣וֹגּוּ וְ֭יָנוּעוּ כַּשִּׁכּ֑וֹר וְכׇל־חׇ֝כְמָתָ֗ם תִּתְבַּלָּֽע׃ ׆ וַיִּצְעֲק֣וּ אֶל־יְ֭הֹוָה בַּצַּ֣ר לָהֶ֑ם וּֽ֝מִמְּצ֥וּקֹתֵיהֶ֗ם יוֹצִיאֵֽם׃
Those who go down to the sea in ships,
ply their trade in the mighty waters; they have seen GOD’s works and such wonders in the deep.
God’s word raised a storm wind that made the waves surge. Mounting up to the heaven, plunging down to the depths, disgorging in their misery, they reeled and staggered like a drunk, all their skill to no avail. In their adversity they cried to GOD, and were saved from their troubles.
Ps. 107:22-28
The brave mariners with the weird noons framing their plight are among four groups of people listed here, each with a particular reason to be grateful to be alive. The list includes those who crossed deserts, recovered from illness, or released from imprisonment.
Generations of scholars debated whether these are specific cases or broader typologies that call for gratitude.
The Babylonian Talmud in Tractate Berachot referenced this psalm as the basis for the Ha’Gomel Blessing - a special prayer of appreciation reserved for when one survives a crisis and stays alive. With time its use has been extended beyond these four specific cases to be the blessing recited after childbirth, accidents, after flights or even heartaches.
In the 1950’s this psalm was also chosen by the Israeli Rabbinate as the official psalm for Yom Ha’atzmaut - Israel’s Independence Day.
This is the praise psalm of a nation saved from destruction, celebrating redemption while remembering the horrors on the long path to get there.
The mysterious notations that appear in this chapter remind us of how much we will not ever know - scribal errors that become sacred scripture, voyages that become disasters, wars that bring about peace --- tremendous and tiny gestures that call on us, like poems, to be more present, to find ways of being grateful, fully alive, committed to the changes that are needed so that to be more helpful for ourselves and for our hurting people and world.
What are you grateful for today that’s worthy of a blessing?
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https://www.labshul.org/high-holy-days-of-awe/prepent-5785/
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