Re-Parented: Psalm 27

Re-Parented by Chana-Toni Whitmont

Our tradition suggests Psalm 27 as a daily reading throughout the month of Elul as part of teshuvah practice, which begs the question: Why Psalm 27?

I have tried to make friends with this particular psalm over a number of years, but until recently, I could never get past its confronting language - words such as devour, assail, enemy, dread, evil, foe, army. I have always been more comfortable with the version of teshuvah which is about about compassion and self compassion, about meeting what arises with loving curiosity. I am grateful to my chevruta partner Tamara who opened a door for me explaining that we can enlist that continual flow of Divine light and love which continually pours onto us to help us overpower any enemies that seek to devour and assail us, even when those enemies are the doubts and judgements about ourselves that we harbour in our own hearts. In fact, it is precisely because we are held in this light of compassion, that we can go about our teshuvah with the rigour of a military campaign, that we can follow the steps to lead us to what the Rambam calls teshuvah gemurah תְּשׁוּבָה גְּמוּרָה

Rabbi Shefa Gold devoted one of her extraordinary zoom chant shiurs to Psalm 27 during Elul last year (5780/2020). She framed it with the teaching that we can meet the external perils that combine to act as an unwanted force coming toward us with an equal or stronger force which we ourselves can radiate out. In other words, we can commit to a strategy to find inner radiance, to shine it out rather than be overtaken by the shadow of negativity. The psalm invites us to call up what we need in order to do our inner work. It certainly doesn’t ignore the dangers that are out there. Instead, it provides us sanctuary so that we can find within everything we need to face the challenges in the world. Elul, particularly in this chaotic time of pandemic, is the ideal time to turn to those inner resources, to find our resolve to not be the victim of circumstance but rather to find the Presence within, the Presence that is just waiting for us to to (re)turn.

The first step in Rabbi Gold’s four-stage process is called Preparation for Healing. She re-casts the first verse of the psalm to the second person, so that the chanter is directly addressing God (as the Mystery within), counter-balancing the "You" of God with the endless “me, me, me” of the ego. Opening to “You” is the first step in ending the separation that is “me”. And in stepping back from separation, there is the possibility of experiencing that “godding” through me as strength, light, life and presence.

The next step is to acknowledge our grief, to meet it and find within it, expanded awareness. Verses 9 & 10 acknowledges our abandonment - by “our parents” ie all the ideals and aspects of life that we previously thought we could count on. Seeing clearly (especially in the light of this current global crisis), so much of our former selves has already been stripped away. Things that we erroneously thought were holding us are proving to be hollow, AND, at the same time, we can lean into the support of a much greater holding. We can be gathered in to a Divine embrace, and from that place, we can receive the guidance to do what needs to be done in the world. Despite the fact that we have no control over our external environment, we can move through loss, to find ourselves being filled with strength and inspiration enough to step forward through Elul and on toward Rosh Hashana with the inner empowerment we need to respond from a new place.

Step three is a plea not to remain hidden from God. Here we are called to unmask ourselves, to dare to reveal our true face, our radiance, the fullness of our presence, the truth of who we are. For our true face is precisely what the world needs. Verse 9 speaks to our absolutely essential uniqueness, to the face we had before we were born as it were. And how can we even expect to see “the face of God” when we are keeping our own face hidden?

And finally, we come to the exhortation to each other to strength and hope (verse 14). When we remind each other of all the things that we would otherwise tend to forget, we embed in each other the strength and courage to grow from the inside out, to seek out that direct connection to Source (Interestingly, that first word, קַוֵּה, kavay has shoresh/root in kav - the word that is used to describe straight line of light that was first threaded in to create the cosmos).