South Carolina preacher Rev. Jeffrey Kirby recently offered a piece of scripture for American society, which is embroiled in political tension. Kirby, who leads Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Indian Land, South Carolina, recently quoted Psalm 133, which offers a message of unity and hope amid the troubling times the U.S. is facing.
In recent years, America has become increasingly polarized, where tensions perhaps reached a boiling point with the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally earlier this month. While Trump fortunately survived the attempt on his life, there are still several months out from the contentious election, and tensions are liable to flare again in some form.
Psalm 133:1-3 reads, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down upon the beard, upon the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life for evermore.”
The book Psalms in the Bible covers a wide variety of themes that catalog nearly every aspect of the human experience. As a result, they are a great place to turn to in Scripture for wisdom and guidance from God. “Every weekend throughout the United States at different houses of worship, Jewish and Christian communities of various traditions turn to the Book of Psalms as a source of prayer,” the reverend added.
“The 150 psalms are filled with cries of lament and songs of praise. They express every possible emotion of the human soul,” he said. Speaking about the amazing nature of the Psalms, Kirby added, “spontaneous, fluid and give a profound expression to the beauty and chaos of the human heart.”
Kirby then addressed the troubling state of American society, where the book of Psalms has wisdom that has prevailed for many generations which we can turn to. “In our own times, marked as they are by polarization and division, and recently heightened by the shocking attempted assassination of a former president and leading political candidate, we can follow the lead of countless generations before us and turn to the Book of Psalms,” he said. Kirby suggested that Psalm 133 “can raise up our hearts and give us guidance and encouragement.”
He further described the context of the book, which belongs to the Psalms of Ascent, praises that were sung as Jews traveled to Jerusalem. “The psalm was one of the Psalms of Ascent, since it was sung by people as they neared Jerusalem for one of the major feasts. The strength of its call for unity and the conviction of its hope for peace among people, however, jumps out and shakes believers of every generation.”
Kirby further added that Psalm 133 can be applied to the cultural issues prevalent in the United States today. “In typical fashion with the psalms, which read the human heart and give it words, Psalm 133 expresses the deepest sentiments of many Americans today.”
Featured image credit: Joshua Keller, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gutenberg_Bible,_New_York_Public_Library,_USA._Pic_01.jpg