In a little while the wicked won’t exist! If you go looking around their place, they won’t be there. But the weak will inherit the land; they will enjoy a surplus of peace.
— Psalm 37:10-11
I am reading Psalms 37 a lot these days. It would be nice to say I gain comfort and peace from these beautiful words prayed by King David, and I do. But there is something more that draws me back.
I hear the Wizard of Oz song “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” playing amid my increasingly chaotic thoughts. The lyrics ring out in my head, “Ding dong, the witch is dead. The wicked ole witch, the witch is dead. Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead!”
Renee Dugger
Time to par-tay!!
I often pray the Lovingkindness Meditation including these “wicked witch others” whom I name in the “people difficult to love” category. This is becoming harder and feels increasingly hypocritical when, at times, what I really want to do is meditate on the destruction and utter annihilation of the “wicked witch others.”
It seems impossible to move through Psalm 37 and feel genuine, wholehearted compassion for these “wicked others.” I want a house to fall on them. I want a pail of water to douse them so they melt before my very eyes. Gone — leaving nary a greasy spot. Just their ruby slippers, now on the feet of those bullied. Powerful, beautiful slippers sliding onto the feet of the innocent. No longer diminished and put in their place. Released from tyranny and singing with gusto, “Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead!”
I can almost taste this scene landing on my tongue — more sweet than bitter. Holding space for lovingkindness seems beyond me. Jesus’ sermons on the mount and plain should be required reading for me after Psalm 37. He has some things to say about how to hold space for the “wicked witch others.”
Instead, I gravitate back to Psalm 37:10 and revel in the hoped and dreamed reality that I cannot find them anywhere. Hmmmmm, I can’t even remember what they looked like.
Renee Dugger is a retired nursing professor who finds her “self” in the natural world and contemplative practices. Joys of her life include her husband, David; son, Aaron; daughter-in-love, Natalie; and amazing grands Daisy and Ike. She lives in Saint Helena Island, S.C.