Saturday, 2 April 2011

Revelation

What is a revelation? When someone says - x is revealed, what does one mean by this? Is it intellect or beauty or grammar or truth or form? And who is the revealer and to whom is it revealed?

Reveal requires a subject - and a target - and a substance. Since each subject and each target if they are human are of manifold variety and each aspect that might be 'revealed' is of interest to some or not, then a single word 'revealed' does not in the headline reveal much.

I reveal nothing. You may read my translations and something may be suggested to you concerning form, or joy, or gift, or content. But it is not I who reveal but some aspect of the word that is given in revelation to you by whatever agent.  If I explain some thing about a psalm, this may help your revelation, but my explanation is only a nudge, a wink, not the revelation itself.

The unveiling is in you. Perhaps I planted or watered, but I did not reveal. It is beyond me to open eyes or to unstop ears or to engage the whole that you are, Beloved.

Why do I write then? Perhaps I reveal a little of myself to myself. Perhaps I learn. In my visible struggle, perhaps some other such as yourself sees a motion towards hope.  There are times when much seems revealed to me, but I may not be able to write on it. Intellect distracts, or explanation distorts, or volume diminishes capacity. If I find focus, then distractions are put aside, explanation is guided and limited, volume is attenuated, and relevance amplified.  But such discipline takes considerable time. That is why I have limited my posts on the psalms - the 'notes' on PoC to 10 a month.  12 months to go then.  And all that time, my concordant and structural summaries here will be under refinement.

I do hope someone is reading because it is a lot of fun. But beware - I miss things I should not miss. Hopefully I will catch many of them in the next year. Hopefully my misses will not mislead you.  But there is and will not be any final answer apart from that sufficiency which is not mine to give.

The revelation continues and grows for ever. It is revealing the goodness of the one who said repeatedly: it is good.  There are no hidden codices, it is not cryptic, there is no fraudulence, there is real engagement with this presence. Such unveiling satisfies. That is why the people came - because they ate and were satisfied. Psalm 22:26 (27). Compare John 6:26.
יֹאכְלוּ עֲנָוִים וְיִשְׂבָּעוּ