Orientation, Disorientation, Reorientation: Life’s Recurrent Theme in the Psalms

Walter Brueggeman in The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary identified a pattern of orientation, disorientation and reorientation in the Psalms. These three seasons of faith reflect the geography of mankind’s search for meaning in life. “[O]ur life of faith consists in moving with God in terms of being securely oriented, (b) being painfully disoriented, and (c) being surprisingly reoriented,” Brueggeman said.

Dennis Ford argues in The Search for Meaning: A Short History that humans are part animal and part symbol. While our animal instincts are moderated through biology and environment, our symbolic aspect is moderated by either culture’s symbols and rituals, or by an internal sense of “meaning.” When the cultural supports begin to crumble, as may be the case with birth, death or the Holocaust, we are forced to ask the child-like yet monumental question “Why?” The answer is often entails metaphysical and/or transpersonal answers.

Often, the first answer to whether there is purpose or meaning to life, i.e., “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is that life is inherently meaningless. The following statement by Richard Tarnas, a cultural historian and professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, as quoted by Ford, is both relevant and hilarious:

Our psychological and spiritual predispositions are absurdly at variance with the world revealed by our scientific method. We seem to receive two messages from our existential situation: on the one hand, strive, give oneself to the quest for meaning and spiritual fulfillment; but, on the other hand, know that the universe, of whose substance we are derived, is entirely indifferent to that quest, soulless in character, and nullifying in its effects. We are at once aroused and crushed. For inexplicably, absurdly, the cosmos is inhuman, yet we are not. The situation is profoundly unintelligible.

The answer of “meaninglessness” is unacceptable, Ford argues. Even Leonid Tolstoy, deeply troubled by the question of meaning, came to believe in a “Truth behind the truth of meaninglessness,” Ford said. Once the question of why is asked, one cannot return to quiet denial, he says. A solution, or at least a search, must follow. In time, whose who seek meaning will either find answers or reach a comforting realization that the question is enigmatic and will remain part of the great mystery of life.

The so-called “mid-life crisis” provides an interesting example of the orientation, disorientation and reorientation pattern as it pertains to the search for meaning. From childhood through adulthood, many people allow themselves to be guided by culture’s rituals and symbols. This guidance can come from many sources, including the church and entertainment media. As was the case with Tolstoy, many of us wake up one day with the dread realization that very little in our lives has “meaning.”

The inevitable search for an answer to the question “Why?” ensues, and we either struggle with the question until our dying day or we find comfort in one or another philosophical or religious system.

One “ultimately futile” answer is to return to our primary instincts, because if meaninglessness is not the problem, perhaps self-consciousness is, Ford says. The following statement by Ford is particularly salient:

Alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual obsessions, and adventurousness – in which meaning remains, but only while engaged in extreme and risky activities, including violence – have all been attributed to misguided and finally self-destructive attempts to suppress the question of meaning by drowning in instinctual behavior.

The Psalms can be examined from several perspectives – style and form, meaning and intent, etc. – but the orientation, disorientation and reorientation pattern provides a convenient, though inexact, overlay. Some Psalms recognize and give thanks when life is going well. Others express abject dismay when things go bad. Yet another category re-establishes a positive relationship with God. (Whether that re-established relationship can contain the same level of trust as existed before the crisis would be the subject of another essay.)

Psalms grouped as “hymns” serve to praise God and express trust (8, 19, 29, 33, 65, 67, 68, 96, 98, 100, 103, 104, 105, 111, 113, 114, 117, 135, 136, 139, and 145 through 150). They seem to say, “Life is good and getting better. Thank you God!”

The individual and communal lament Psalms (3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27:7-14, 28, 31, 35, 38, 39, 42-43, 54-57, 59, 61, 63, 64, 69, 70, 71, 86, 88, 102, 109, 120, 130, 140, 141, 142, 143, and 44, 74, 79, 80, and 83, etc.), which are most numerous, express the disorientation the people of ancient Israel felt at various times in their history. They seem ask, “God, why aren’t you around to save us from this crisis?”

The communal and individual thanksgiving and praise Pslams (18, 30, 32, 34, 41, 67, 92, 116, 118, 124, 129, 138, etc.) express reorientation toward God once the crisis is resolved. "Faith was in question but we're cool now," they imply.

Brueggeman’s writings, including The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (1984), find synergy with the writings of Herman Gunkel, particularly The Psalms: A Form-Critical Introduction (1967) and Introduction to Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of Israel (1998).