It is raining in northeast Indiana as I write. But it wasn’t raining earlier this morning. When I hauled myself out of bed, I looked out the window. Dark clouds. I wondered if it might rain, so I checked one and then the other weather app on my phone. The first app told me not to worry; no drops would fall until around 9:00 a.m. – long after I’d come in from my morning run. The second app told a more foreboding story, however. The clouds were due to burst in exactly 29 minutes, about the time I’d have finished the morning psalms and was ready to hit the pavement. Both apps agreed that the temperature outside was in the mid-40s and that it really felt as if it was in the 30’s. A possibility or rain, chillier than I expected. Maybe a morning to stay in a warm, dry house. Perhaps that was how best to understand the first morning psalm, “Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!” (Psalm 61:4).
Still no rain by the time I came to the closing line of Psalm 62, “You will render to all according to their work.” App #1 was sticking to its 9:00 a.m. rain prediction and #2 had changed its mind. I still had 45 minutes until it got wet outside. 45 minutes was not long enough for my planned running route, but the loopy nature of our neighborhood (the streets if not always the neighbors) meant that I would be able to find a fairly fast path home should the rain begin to soak to my bones. Besides, what might I be rendered if I neglected the work of a morning run? Out I went.
The rain began around 9:00 a.m. – long after I’d come in from my morning run. Continue reading