Reason vs. Disappointment

As the title indicates, I'm feeling torn between a reasonable reading, and my first response: disappointment. Since I value reason more, I'll start with disappointment. I read the following verses several times:

PSA 68.5: A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
PSA 68.6: God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

Before & after these verses, there is a lot of 'wow, the greatness of God', and 'woo-woo', and whatnot. I must admit, I have a tendency to space off a bit at verses like this: "The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel"(PSA 68.8). We really only need a verse or two like this, but it seems like Psalms is about half cheer leading. So, sandwiched between all this rather excessive praise (I know it's God, but enough already), are the two verses I noted above.

As I said, at first I read these verses & was disappointed. I teach public school, and I see far too many fatherless children every day. I read this sentence, and I think, "No, actually. I can write a loooong list of kids I see in class who have been abandoned, abused, beaten." So I felt disappointed in this pack of lies.

I puzzled over the "judge of widows" part; still not sure what that means, and I read right over the "holy habitation" line. I paused again at "God setteth the solitary in families," and felt more disappointment in the somewhat smaller list I have of people who are lonely & wishing for families; I thought of orphans, the homeless kids at school.  And of course, the "bound with chains" line brought lots of atrocities to mind. More lies!

Then I went back because the widows part was bugging me; I reread it several times, rather grumpily, until my brain finally grasped the part where it says, "God in his holy habitation." Duh. It's talking about church. Fatherless children find guidance in church, a religious community. This makes sense to me. Church makes sense, and I understand an important aspect of organized religion is belonging, which brings me to this cool story from NPR.  After listening to this story on the radio, I kept thinking about how cool it would be to go to a hip-hop church, then I realized I'm a 35 year old literature teacher who listens to jazz and acoustic guitar. But good for them, anyway.

If one carries the church idea through the second verse, it makes a lot more sense as well. Though the chains lines takes a lot more of a stretch; the only way for some to escape their chains is through hope & faith, which, hopefully for them, isn't a stretch. The last part of verse 6 makes me sad, because I think of Cool Hand Luke. I think of that last scene where he talks to God about being a hard case. He accepts his lot, opens the door, and is shot in the neck. I wonder if God embraced him? I'd like to think so, though we get no sign of it in the movie. I love that movie, because I understand Luke. Well, not the 50 eggs, or the fight in prison yard, but the show me a sign scene in the rain. Sigh...

Oh, and PS: leave me a comment if you're reading, or a question, or some other commentary. I like to chat.