17 July 2025

‘My days are like an evening shadow,’ says the Psalmist and then, ‘but you, O Lord, are king forever!’ This magnificently bold and dramatic change from lament to hymn of praise reminds me of that brilliant musical moment which Benjamin Britten created in his version of the Medieval Mystery Play, ‘Noye’s Fludde’.

Noye, his wife and family are all safely in the ark. The rain begins and as the drops become heavier there is thunder and lightning. At the height of the storm, the strings reach a hair-raising crescendo and the percussionists have a field day creating the thunder, the lightning and the chaos of this devastating flood.

Like the Psalmist’s lament, it could go on forever getting louder and louder and evermore fearful and troubled until above the musical chaos of the storm the cast begin to sing the familiar words and music of the seafarer’s hymn of praise:

Eternal Father, strong to save,

Whose arm doth bind the restless wave,

Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep:

O hear us when we cry to thee

For those in peril on the sea.

At that musical moment, we realise that there has been a dramatic turning-point – lament has been turned into a hymn of praise. Although the storm still rages, Noye and his crew are confident not only in God’s abiding presence but also in his power to save.

‘My days are like an evening shadow … but you, O Lord, are king forever.’ Nothing can destroy his power. It is eternal. I may be living a shadowy existence. Like CS Lewis, I may be imprisoned in a Shadowland of pain and grief, but that isn’t of ultimate importance!

What is of ultimate importance is God and the fulfilment of his will. And so faith may inspire us to say with the Psalmist at the height of our distress, ‘My days are like an evening shadow … but you, O Lord, are king forever!’ (Psalm102;11,12)