To deal with despair and distress, the psalmist takes comfort in God’s ordinances and commandments.

erhaps like you, I have difficulty with the Bible’s “kingly” language, whether for God or Jesus Christ. It’s even more problematic as Christian nationalists use “Christ is King” to exclude Jews, Muslims, and people of other faiths, from God’s grace and the body politic.

“So, what’s your favorite Bible verse?” my seminary classmate asked as we stood on the shoreline waiting for the sunrise.

Were the psalmist writing in our own time, both his and the owl’s mournful cry would be amplified, since human and avian life are under siege.