Count Yourself In

Tomorrow, May 12^th, is Census Day in Canada and like other households in Canada we received a census form in the mail a while ago.  It wasn’t a form to fill out, rather it was information about filling out the census form on-line – a first I believe for the census.  The census is done every five years and if memory serves me, we received the census form in the mail which we completed. 

We completed the on-line form which took about 40 minutes.  I’m not sure if we were fortunate enough to receive the long form which goes to about a quarter of households but it included questions on a range of subjects such as income, employment status, education, sexual orientation, homelessness, religion, amount paid for utilities and property taxes, marital status, and other areas that I may have forgotten being a retiree and born in 1949. 

Listening to an interview with a rep from StatsCan this morning on CBC radio, he noted that the completion rate was 98% for past censuses, which makes Canada the envy of other countries.  There are a few people who object to the census as an invasion of privacy.  However, these have been relatively few in past years.  I have a suspicion that this may be larger in these times when conspiracy fears are growing and separation movements with them in Alberta and Quebec.

Having worked with StatsCan data in a past life and worked with staff at StatsCan, I am able to affirm how important the data that is collected in the census and other surveys conducted by StatsCan.  The staff that I worked with were dedicated and hard-working and wanted to produce the best results for the people who utilized the data.  Census information is a valuable resource for academics and planners in many fields and is an invaluable resource for the country.  I would encourage everyone who has not yet filled out their census form to do so.  If you aren’t willing or able to do it on-line, it can be done the old-fashioned way. 

Censuses are not something new and have been around for a very long time.  Indeed, there is mention of censuses in the bible.  The book of numbers recounts a census taken by the Israelites in the exodus from slavery in Egypt.  God commands Moses to take a census of the Israelite community in the wilderness of Sinai. "Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one."  This information was valuable in planning by Moses and other leaders for battles with tribes they encountered before and after entry into the Promised Land.  

King David also undertook a census of his kingdom.  It was a census of the troops available to him.  However, as was often the case with David, his actions often did not please God as, unlike in the Exodus, God had not commanded the census to be undertaken.  God saw this as an act of pride by David. 

Finally, we have the census that most Christians are aware of, being part of the Christmas story.  This was the first census to take place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  This census is significant as it fulfilled the prophecy of the Messiah's birth in Bethlehem according to the Gospel of Luke.  This has been problematic for the accuracy of the birth narrative, as there is no historic record of a census at that time.  But that is an issue for another time.

There was a saying when I was involved in planning and utilizing data, you can’t make good decisions without good data.   That may not always be true, but it certainly helps.  Fortunately, the census data has been a good and valuable resource for Canada to use.  If you haven’t yet completed it, please do your part and complete the census and count yourself in as a household in Canada.     

A Shallow Dive into the Psalms

The book of psalms in the Christian and Hebrew bibles offers the reader a resource which connects to aspects of our lives in ways that should not be ignored.  In the Christiaan context they are an integral part of the liturgy.  The Book of Psalms in the Christian bible consists of 150 psalms attributed to many different authors.   Up to half the psalms are attributed to King David.  However, as noted in the go-to-source of knowledge on-line, Wikipedia, “David's authorship is not accepted by most modern Bible scholars, who instead attribute the composition of the psalms to various authors writing between the 9th and 5th centuries BC.”

The 150 psalms with many different authors vary in content and length.  The shortest psalm number 117 is two verses long; it is a psalm of praise to God.  The longest, psalm 119, has 176 verses.  It is what is called an acrostic work.  According to the Oxford Companion to the Bible, “an acrostic poem is a poem in which the initial letters of each successive line form a word, phrase or pattern.”  In psalm 119, the psalm is divided into parts composed of 8 verses.  Each psalm uses a letter from the Hebrew alphabet which is comprised of 22 letters e.g., the first 8 verses correspond to the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph.

In delving into the Book of Psalms it may be helpful to categorize the psalms.  This can be done in different ways.  One way I found on-line, uses 10 categories.  Here is the link https://knoxepc.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/the-10-types-of-psalms/.

Praise: A psalm of praise is pretty self-explanatory. It focuses on praising who God is and what He has done (for example, Psalm 1). We even see praise psalms in other places, such as 2 Chronicles 20.

Hymns: These are songs of joy from people who are happy with God and their circumstances. They often urge others to sing to God as well (see Psalm 98).

Laments: On the flip side of joy is distress, and that results in the lament psalms. These express emotional and spiritual suffering with a plea to God to intervene and help (such as Psalm 88).

Imprecatory: The most difficult type of psalm to understand, imprecatory psalms call for God’s judgment upon enemies. They use striking images and ultimately leave justice and vengeance to God alone (such as Psalm 69).

Thanksgiving: While these psalms are full of joy, they are more specific in the reasons why one is joyful. As the category indicates, thanksgiving psalms thank God for blessings and provision (see Psalm 30).

Prophetic: Many of the psalms hold prophetic oracles where God is the speaker rather than the subject. Psalm 50 would be your go-to example of one of these.

Confidence: Instead of falling into despair like a lament, confidence psalms see opposition coming but they rise to state their trust in God and His guidance (Psalm 23).

Wisdom: Some of the psalms share traits of other biblical wisdom literature with practical guidance and warnings (Psalm 119).

Remembrance: This is a psalm that looks back at what God has done in the past and seeks to remind everyone of these acts and promises (Psalm 136).

Royal: Any time a psalm dips into regal imagery — of kings, processions, thrones, and the like — it’s most likely a royal psalm either from a king, about a king, or about God as king.

May you be blessed with psalms that speak to you on your journey.

I acknowledge that we are on the original homelands of the many Indigenous Nations who have lived since time immemorial in Canada or as many First and other Indigenous Nations.  All of the lands in Canada are the subject of up to one hundred Treaties signed by the Crown in the right of Canada with these Nations. I will only mention a few of the Nations: the Cree, Ojibway, Blackfoot, Blood, Dakota, Mig M'ag, Huron, Inuit and these lands are also home to the Metis people.