#TreasuresofDarkness, Day 3: Psalm 68:31 and the stirrings of Revolution
“Black was an emotionally partisan color, the handmaid and symbol of baseness and evil, a sign of danger and repulsion. Embedded in the concept of blackness, was its direct opposite-whiteness…White and black connoted purity and filthiness, virginity and sin, virtue and baseness, beauty and ugliness, beneficence and evil, God and the devil….Blackness not only had a distinctive negative connotation but also was personalized as the devil.” from Yorbua Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism, Dr. Tracey E. Hucks
“The missionaries who introduced the gospel to Africa in the past 200 years did not bring God to our continent. Instead, God brought them. They proclaimed the name Jesus Chrsit. But they used the names of the God who was and is already known by African peoples: such as Mungu, Ngai, Olodumare, Asis and thousands more. These were not empty names. They were names of the one and the same God.” Dr. John Mbiti, as quoted by Dr. Peter Paris from The Spirituality of African Peoples
One of the issues that I am rooted in my constructive and valid criticism of Westernized Christianity, is the factor that we, as African Peoples of the Diaspora are not religious or spiritual enough and need to be trained and educated in the right way of worship.
That Christianity was exclusive to Western European ideals, because we were obviously uncivilized because we worshiped the Creator in a variety of ways and languages. That we were cursed because of our skin, and therefore anything that we contributed to the global culture should be eradicated and erased.
Even today, when African Descent peoples here in the U.S. worship and celebrate the Creator God, with songs and dancing and drumming it is still seen as barbaric. When we venerate our Ancestors, it is seen as demonic. And yet, it is through the African Diaspora communities that the communications both ancient, sacred and now, sacred are still being utilized. That many peoples, for that matter of different cultures who have been oppressed and marginalized because of whom they are and that they did not fit the “accepted norm” of whiteness, also have a deeper connection to the Creator because of these rituals and traditions.
“The principle that holds all of these beings together is harmony. Every being, divine and human, is responsible for the nurturing harmony within and between the various levels of created existence and hence with the Great High God. The manifestation of disharmony is considered evil, and not reflective of the Great High God.” Dr. Peter Paris.
In other words, peoples of the African Diaspora, since we were birthed into Creation, have held fast to the practical and ethical obligations both to ourselves as Tribes of peoples, to Creation and to the Creator.
Here below, is my original post and contribution towards the #TreasuresofDarkness African Descent History Devotional.
Ache’.
Amen.
Curiously enough,
by scholars and theologians alike,
Psalm 68 has been difficult to analyze and decipher
Also,
Interestingly
Psalm 68, verse 31
Has routinely been ignored or not included
in much of the lectionary-
Sometimes it is everything BUT
Verse 31.
Let bronze be brought from Egypt;
let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hands to God.
Rather interesting that the word “bronze” has been substituted for the Hebrew חַשְׁמַנִּים
which means ambassador, envoy
And in other places, the definition has been translated into nobles, Princes and even red cloth.
Curious about how items such as red cloth, bronze and other interpretations came to be, to describe one of the mighty civilizations of the world-or perhaps, it was only the material and the profitable that mattered on describing places in Africa-
because the Peoples of Africa,
where never seen as vital
or important
Or even, related to the colonizing white/European
as even human.
There are two key interpretations. One, cultivated by white abolitionists and subsequently used by Europeans who embark upon an African “civilizing mission”, holds that it is they — white/Europeans — who are God’s children. Hence, it is white/Europeans to whom Ethiopia is stretching for her hands for deliverance from slavery and primitivism. The other, cultivated by the enslaved and their downpressed descendants, holds that the Bible is their story — the “half never told“. Africans will therefore righteously deliver their own selves from bondage. Interpretation of Psalm 68:31
In the Hebrew, כּ֥וּשׁ
is translated into Cush,
Cush,
Son of Ham,
Cursed for all eternity
This curse passed down to all of his descendants
of being
BLACK,
which because of Ham seeing Noah his father’s most vulnerable moment
Was a sign of disrespect
And the excuse to enslave the entirety of a People.
And yet,
It’s hilarious because this particular Psalm
Speaks of God
FIGHTING
FOR
THE
VULNERABLE
Clearly throughout the Psalm,
God is protecting those who have been abandoned
Abused
And leads out those who have been wrongly imprisoned
By the early part of the 19th century various mystics, poets and preachers begin to proselytize this message in public. Prince Hall, a Barbadian freemason, resident in Boston, proclaims that the Haitian Revolution is prophecy revealed: “Thus doth Ethiopia begin to stretch forth her hand, from a sink of slavery to freedom and equality. Interpretation of Psalm 68:31
The Psalms are songs
Expressing our heartache, our sorrow and our determination
as Beloved of God
Psalm 68:31 then,
Is a Song of Freedom
Because the chosen peoples of God,
in times when humanity pits itself against one another,
In the name of dominance
and greed,
and selfishness
Reach out their arms to the Creator,
Because the Creator indeed,
protects Peoples
counted among the Sacred.
Ase.
Resident Troublemaker and curator of this blog, the Rev. Kwame Pitts dances with the both/and: Serving her Call to be a prophetic Witness of the Gospel as a Rostered and Ordained Pastor in the ELCA, causing chaos whether it is through voting rights (#ELCAVOTES) or contemplating how everyone should be visible in the institution of the Church, when the status quo attempts to quell the presence of many voices. (#DecolonizeLutheranism). When not challenging the institution of Christianity, she has entered the fray of academica once more(S.T.M/D.Min) as well as Deepening her ties to her Ancestors and through exploration of ancestral faith and spirituality of the Diaspora. She currently resides in Upstate New York as both Pastor and Campus Pastor, as well as creating a Womanist Community towards Wellness and Faith.
