Psalms 37:7: “Resign yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.  Fret not yourself because of him who prospereth in his way. Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”

I am sitting out on the patio watching some birds and a chipmunk at play.  I learned from my last visit to the Abbey in silence that if I listen closely with my heart I can understand what they are communicating to me.  The chipmunk is looking right at me as if to say: “Watch this.”  He then turns and runs up the pole to the bird feeder where about three other birds are helping themselves.  Mr. Chipmunk seems to be entirely uninterested in the seeds that the birdfeeder has to offer, he is just at rest on the base of the feeder and stays there as the birds help themselves to the seeds. He looks over at me as if to ask: “Get the message?”  Well, actually, I don’t.  I am studying in Psalms 37 right now and suddenly one by one six birds fly up to the feeder.  I count them three black birds, one dove, one cardinal and one bird that looks like a woodpecker and including my chipmunk friend that makes seven of God’s creatures playing around in front of me. Perhaps they are telling me to look at verse seven.

“Resign yourself to the Lord.”  That word resign in the Hebrew is dom which comes from the root word damam the word that I examined yesterday.  It means to be silent.  I suddenly realize that I did not hear any chirping or any singing from these birds, they were just silently going about their business of feeding.  There is another rendering for damam and that is to stand still, just as my Mr. Chipmunk did when he climbed up the pole to the feeder and just stood still in front of it. He did not partake of any of the seeds it seemed he climbed that pole for no other reason than the fact that it was there.

Mr. Chipmunk deserves a better title, I shall call him Pastor Chipmunk.  It was almost like Pastor Chipmunk was waiting for something.  Yeah, the next part of the verse is wait for Him.  There he is surrounded by all that delicious food, but he was having none of it he was just waiting.  Wait, there’s Pastor Chipmunk and Mrs. Chipmunk is with him and they are now running around in a circle, they stop, look at me and then continue their dance.  My heart tells me they are telling me something but I don’t know what it is.

Suddenly I realize I am reading my English text and not my Hebrew text so I look at my Hebrew text at the words wait patiently for Him and expecting to see the word quavah for wait I find it is the word chul which is in a Hithpael form. I look at Pastor Chipmunk who suddenly turns around and I swear he was waving his tail at me as if to say: “You’ve got, now let me go about my business.”

I check and recheck and there is no way around it (pun intended and you will see why in a moment). For whatever reason translators rendered chul as wait.  I can only surmise that these translators who render chul as wait never had an ordained (ordained by God) chipmunk guide them in translating process of this verse. I have no idea how you get wait from chul, I have never seen it translated this way.  You see this verse should literally read: “Be silent and dance for the Lord.” But wait there is more.  That word for dance chul is in a Hithpael form, it is reflexive thus you would render this as “Be silent and cause yourself to dance to the Lord.”  Wait a minute, I am not done yet.  This is the same word that was used when David danced before the Lord in front of the Ark of the Covenant.  The word chul means to spin around in a circle. 

In ancient times children would worship God by spinning around in a circle.  When David spun around in a circle before the Ark of the Covenant his wife accused him of acting inappropriately for a king, he was acting like a child and David basically said; “Tough, I will act the way I want to act before the Lord.”  David set the example we must come before the Lord as little children.  “Is that what you are telling me Rev. and Mrs. Chipmunk?  That I am to become like a little child in my faith?”  They stop running in circles and look at me as if to say: “Well if you are conversing with chipmunks you can’t get more childish than that.”

Hey, there is nothing in the rule book here at the Abbey that says I cannot dance, I just need to be silent. However it can be a bit embarrassing spinning around in a circle in front of the brothers and retreatants.  This is after all in a Hithpael form meaning I have to cause myself to dance.  This will not come naturally so I go to my cell. I call it my cell but it is actually my room only is much like a prison cell with a cold hard floor, a bed with no springs just a mattress on a board, a desk and no heat.  It is cold in my cell. It is 55 degrees outside and I believe the temperature is the same in my cell. Well, I asked for the monk’s quarters and not the modern dormitory reserved for the retreatants.  They reserve about a dozen monks quarters for those who want to really experience monastic life and a contemplative life style.  My recommendation – stay with the retreat house and not the monks quarters.

Anyways, if anything it is private and quiet and if I am going to Hithpael cause myself to dance I must lock my door, shut myself out from the brothers and retreatant so no one thinks I am crazy. I’ve already gone half daff talking to chipmunks and birds.  Once settle in I just begin to spin around in a circle chul, worshipping and praising my God and I cannot stop because I am  experiencing nothing but joy,  pure joy. If anyone saw me they would think I was crazy, even here at the monastery and if they found out a chipmunk recommended this little dance to me, well, let’s just keep this a secret between you, me and God.  I am not sure but a padded cell could be worse.

Now don’t expect me to get anymore rational because I have vowed to spend the rest of my time in silence practicing the faith of a little child and you know what their imagination can conjure up.