I’m recording a new series on the period pastor podcast. The upcoming series is going to focus on the Psalms. I will be following lectionary year B starting on the first Sunday in Advent, December 3rd.
For those of you who are new to the pod cast and blog, my name is Karie Charlton. I’m a Presbyterian Pastor that works outside of a traditional church setting as the leader of the Pittsburgh Chapter of Days for Girls International. My team and I make washable menstrual pads that are distributed locally and all over the world. As the Period Pastor, I maintain a blog, social media, and podcast to engage an audience in issues of faith and feminism. In this season, I hope to offer prayers and reflections based on the Psalms.
As an introduction to the new season of podcasts, I want to read to you Psalm 130, which is what inspired the title of this series. I will read it first in the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition and then from Nan Merrill’s Psalms for Praying: An invitation to wholeness.
Like One Who Watches for the Morning
Psalm 130 (NRSVUE) Waiting for Divine Redemption A Song of Ascents.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
5 I wait for the Lord; my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
8 It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.
Psalm 130 (Nan C. Merrill)
Out of the depths I cry to You!
In your Mercy, hear my voice!
May you be attentive to the voice of my supplications!
If You should number the times we stray from You, O Beloved, who could ever face You?
Yet You are ever-ready to forgive, that we might be healed.
I wait for You, my soul waits, For in your Love I would live;
My soul awaits the Beloved as one awaits the birth of a child, or as one awaits the fulfillment of their destiny.
O Sons and daughters of the Light, welcome the Heart of your heart!
Then you will climb the Sacred Mountain of Truth;
You will know mercy and love in abundance.
Then will your transgressions be forgiven; and you will know the Oneness of All.
Like on who watches for the morning. That phrase stuck with me as I studied the psalms. It isn’t exactly what I read, but more what I heard. I am like those who watches for the morning. When I am worried or anxious, I have a difficult time staying asleep. I wake up and open my eyes and try to decide if it’s too early to get out of bed. I’m watching for daylight; for a time on the clock when it’s acceptable to move and make coffee. I don’t want to wake my husband or our dog because like them, I want to be sleeping. So, I wait, and I watch for the light to creep in around the curtains.
During the pandemic, I began immersing in the psalms and found comfort in them. I understand the psalms as the honest prayers of the people of God. And when I join in reading, studying, and praying the psalms, I do not feel alone. I am one among many who are watching for the morning, watching for God, and watching in hope for a better day. My soul is waiting, waiting in what feels like a long advent, waiting in hope for the renewal of life.
If you are also watching for the morning, this podcast is for you. I hope that we can join our prayers together. I recognize that even in my desire to be inclusive, I will fall short. But I continue to pray the psalms, knowing that sometimes I’m praying for me, and sometimes for someone else, and that the psalms can hold all of our prayers and voices with those who prayed them before us and those who will continue to pray them long after you and I are done. My constant prayer is that we can know the oneness of all.
I hope that you join me each Sunday as we work our way through the psalms. The next psalm in the series will be released on Sunday December 3rd. Written reflections will be posted on my blog, www.periodpastor.com. You can also find me on Facebook and Instagram @periodpastor.
Thanks for keeping watch with me. I hope to find you in the morning light next Sunday.
Karie
Period Pastor Pad 