weekly reflection

March 5
Psalm 55:20–21
My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war; with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords.

Psalm 55 captures the poignancy of intimate betrayal, weaving back and forth between despair and complaint, anguish and confidence. If only it were enemies, adversaries, "them." But no, "it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend" (verse 13).

We feel the camaraderie, and then the duplicity: words that say one thing and do another, the violation of trust so astonishing that it leaves the sufferer speechless, faint with distress.

Many sufferers of domestic abuse say nothing to anyone, so shocked and ashamed are they that someone so close could inflict such hurt. Then comes the urge to flee: "O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest" (verse 6). But, ironically, such personal conflict is so much harder to escape.

Have you ever experienced "intimate betrayal"? Have you ever been caught between "despair and complaint, anguish and confidence"?

Prayer
Receive, O God, all shattered trust, all battered hearts.
Remake us in the image of your faithfulness, and restore us, in Jesus, to our graced humanity. Amen.

Adapted with permission from Ross Bartlett, ed., Lamentations for Lent: Whom Shall I Fear? Lenten Reflections on the Psalms of Lament (Toronto: United Church Publishing House, 2004), p. 39.