To be

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; With favour You will surround him as with a shield. – Psalm 5v11-12

‘To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: To die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to? 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep
To sleep, perchance to dream; Aye, there's the rub,’

‘To be or not to be’ is not really the question at all. If we are here, we are indeed ‘to be’ and while we are being we are going to go through all of which Hamlet speaks. Among those things are the ‘sling and arrows of outrageous fortune.’ I think there is a lot that we can identify with in this famous soliloquy. Later Hamlet asks himself of ‘For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time, The Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely, The pangs of disprized love, the Lawes delay, The insolence of Office, and the Spurns…’

When I read these words I can’t help but think of what Paul calls the ‘fiery darts of the wicked one.’ We see a difference in Hamlet and Paul though. Hamlet wrote of the despairs of life and of ‘the undiscovered country from whose Bourne no traveller returns.’ Paul writes of a confident warrior going forth to do battle with life holding on the assurance of his eternal fate.

What makes the difference? It is pretty simple. Paul wrote of the ‘shield of faith’ that protects us from the wicked one.

The psalmist was also aware of that shield. In the midst of the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ those who trust God can rejoice and shout for joy because we have a Defender.

To be or not to be? It might be a classic piece of literature which captures the essence of life in a brilliant manner, but it doesn’t have to describe the life of the believer. We can indeed ‘be’ and be with confidence and joy as we trust in our shield.