An article on an interesting subject? No, not this time. I can only write from the deep crisis situation we are in at present. There is nothing else that keeps me more busy than the question of how to live with the anxiety and fear of the coronavirus and what to make of it.
While reading Psalm 46, I noticed a very interesting introduction to the poem. It read, ‘To the leader. Of the Korahites. According to Alamoth. A Song.’ (NRSV) My curiosity peaked. An alamoth could be a soprano instrument or a direct reference to young female singers, (that is – virgins). Intrigued, I read a few commentaries and the preceding psalm, which also references alamoth, albeit in the context of a wedding feast. I wondered whether the two poems, ascribed to the same family of writers and maintaining that peculiar introit, could once have been one psalm.
While facing this new pandemic, it begs the question: Is it not just another disease, so why all this fuss? Are there not many other epidemics and pandemics that are killing more people?
“Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1) said our Lord, but my heart is troubled. I read this morning that the Chaldean Patriarch ordered to close the Churches in Bagdad in order to protect his people from the virus, and my heart got troubled.