I've always enjoyed reading the really expressive phrases of the Bible. Long before I became a pastor I would mark the unusual phrases in my King James Bible. Then the J.B. Phillips paraphrase came on the market (Letters to Young Churches, 1947) and I was in my element with phrases like "Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold" and "See things from God's point of view". The Amplified New Testament followed in 1958 and I still have my marked copy of the first edition of this popular work. Since then countless versions have found their way onto my shelves, and now on to my computer.
However, you do not need to go pass the 1611 Authorised (King James) Version to find interesting phrases which not only have teaching value but have come into popular use. You may have read Psalms 100 and 103, familiar passages to many Christians. But what about Psalm 102? In verse 6 we read, "I am like a pelican of the wilderness..." What an interesting phrase! In 2002 the phrase was used for a book about hermits titled "Pelicans in the Wilderness". In spite of the author's attribution of the phrase, it comes straight from Psalm 102.
Why it catches my interest is because the words "pelican" and "wilderness" do not coexist easily. A pelican (or cormorant as it is also translated) is a water bird, and a wilderness is a place with very little water or vegetation and probably no fish. We can therefore imagine that the pelican was out of its comfort zone, perhaps exhausted by the heat.
So what can we learn from this phrase? You get a hint of the subject matter of the Psalm from the heading "A Prayer of the afflicted..." This is perhaps why the Amplified Bible translates the phrase as "I am like a melancholy pelican or vulture of the wilderness." Verses 1-11 are a pity party of someone lonely and distressed, and verses 12-28 show how the writer overcome the condition by focusing his thoughts on the greatness of our God.
If you are feeling lonely (verse 7), feeling that God has forgotten you (verse 10), that your enemies are about to overwhelm you (verse 8), then this is the Psalm for you. God hears the groaning of the prisoner (verse 20), and God does not change (verses 12, 27).
In the denomination where I met my wife, we had a song in the hymnal, the chorus of which has remained fixed in my memory for our half a century:
How can I be lonely When I've Jesus only,
To be my Companion and unfailing Guide?
How can I be weary, Or my path seem dreary,
When He's walking by side? (Haldor Lillenas).
And I've since learnt it is even better than that, for Christ is IN me, no just with me or at my side.
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