Remember the paperback Psalms for Modern Man? I liked its line drawings, especially of the animals in Psalm 104. Translations give them various names. The most intriguing animal name for me is the coney, also known as the rock badger or hyrax.
The coney is not without esteem. Proverbs 30:24-28 speaks of four things that are small yet exceedingly wise:
…the ants…without strength, yet they provide their food in the summer;
…the badgers…without power, yet they make their homes in the rocks;
…the locusts…without a king, yet they march in rank;
…the lizard…that can be grasped in the hand, yet found in king’s palaces.
Psalm 104 is a catalog of creation, envisions God’s own chambers on the water, the clouds as God’s chariot, the winds as messengers, fire and flame as ministers. Everything has its place: springs, wild asses, birds, grass and plants, cedars, storks, mountain goats, and “the rocks… a refuge for the coneys.” Even Leviathan, the great sea monster, is “sporting” in the sea in this psalm, taking delight in creation.
Throughout the books of the Bible, animals are woven into human experience from Genesis to Revelation, by writers who observed them, enjoyed them, disdained them, and used them as symbols. Some have starring roles, the snake, the whale, the lamb/Lamb, and others, like the coney, teach us wisdom as in Proverbs. Our experience of lectio continua, the continuous reading of scripture, connects us with all these creatures, even the fanciful. Our hope is that, once we pass over into the next life, we meet the scriptural authors and are able to tell them “I got your point!”
