Balancing




Left: Photograph by Maisie Broadhead; Right: Woman Holding a Balance by Vermeer

 

Whew! A day of running a low-grade fever knocked me down pretty hard. Thankfully, it seemed to only be a  one-day virus with no sore throat or congestion following..... just fever and a bit of nausea. An interesting way to start Lent.

And speaking of Lent, I wanted to meditate my way through Psalm 51 this season. I'm only on the first part of the first verse:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love.... (NIV)

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.... (ESV)

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness.... (NASB)

The Hebrew word for mercy is chanan and means "to be favorably inclined, to favor someone, to be gracious to, to pity."

The word translated as "unfailing love", "steadfast love", and "lovingkindness" is the Hebrew word checed. Baker's Evangelical Dictionary tells us this word speaks of God's coventant love....

"....the quality in God that directs him to forge a relationship with people who absolutely do not deserve to be in relationship with him."

I'm listening to a 1993 sermon series by Tim Keller. One sermon I've listened to was titled "People of the Lie." The Scripture reference is Genesis 3:1-9 and the sermon focuses in on vs 5:

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  (NIV)

This is the serpent talking to Eve telling her the "real" reason God doesn't want her and Adam to eat from tree in the middle of the garden. Simply, it's because God is not good and He is withholding something that would be good for them, so she just needs to take it for herself anyway. Bottom line - God is not good, He is not for our good, and therefore, He doesn't love us.

The lie, then, that has been etched into our very DNA is that God does not love us.

And in thinking on all this, I'm beginning to pray this verse from Psalm 51 like so:

O Lord my God,
have pity on this sinner


who so often believes
the serpent's great lie,


who doubts Your goodness
and Your neverending love.


Incline Your merciful heart toward me,
though I deserve it not one whit.


Teach me to live only beneath the shadow

of Your steadfast and unfailing love.

Now, for the artwork above.... I came across photographer Maisie Maud Broadhead's work and fell in love. Especially with her modern day representations of historical paintings. Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance is one of my favorite paintings. I saw it in person a few years ago in DC at the Nattional Gallery of Art. I love Broadmead's interpretation. Here's a short video explaining a little of her creative process:

Vermeer's painting makes me think of how I need to place God's truth and Satan's lies against each other in the scales of my heart. If I would but look closely, I will see God's truth is always the weightier, the more solid, the one with real substance.