PSALM 80      LET THY FACE SHINE

29^TH NOVEMBER 2020 – ADVENT SUNDAY

As the psalms often show we humans are ‘Janus’ faced: we look forward to the coming times, and backward to the past and combine them in our thoughts and decisions. This poem looks to the distant past – some have a ‘good times’ view, but some in more recent times are of major dislocation.

Because of the mention of Joseph, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh the psalm’s writing can safely be dated to the time of the Assyrian invasion when the Assyrians conquered the northern tribes of Israel and threatened Jerusalem. In this critical situation the tribes have assembled in the sanctuary to bring before God their lament, their supplications, and their intercessions

1     Hear O Shepherd of Israel you that led Joseph like a flock:
you that are enthroned upon the cherubim shine out in glory;

2     Before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh:
stir up your power and come to save us.

These two verses are an invocation to the Almighty because a disaster has already overtaken them (Assyrians, drought, famine) led to the calling of the people together to lay their common complaint to God. It follows the pattern of communal payer. The first part is a remembrance or a reminder to God of his care for them in past ages. Having presented that picture to God the people respond with the first request in the chorus, probably said by all the people, for God to act.

3     Restore us again O Lord of hosts:
show us the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.

In his power he merely must shrug his shoulder and the people are saved. Verse 3 shows the strong faith of the community who believe this is possible on God’s part if he turns again and brings about that encounter in the theophany from which all divine blessings flow.

4     O Lord God of hosts:
how long will you be angry at your people’s prayer?

5     You have fed them with the bread a of tears:
and given them tears to drink in good measure.

6     You have made us the victim of our neighbours:
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

Verses 4-6 reflect the affliction of God’s people is fundamentally a trial of their faith. They suffer from being separated from God, from being subject to his anger, though they are probably not without a sense of their own guilt. The faithful who have lost confidence in their God give vent to their bitter disappointment in the supressed irony of the statement that the food and drink that they are indebted to their God consisted in a full measure of tears. The land that they had been promised was now wrenched away and given to those ‘who laugh us to scorn’.

7.    Restore us again O Lord of hosts:
show us the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.

Despite the preceding picture of dislocation, the people still cry out in faith.

17   Let your power rest on the man at your right hand:
on that son of man whom you made so strong for yourself.

18   And so we shall not turn back from you:
give us life and we will call upon your name.

The cult community envisages once more the seriousness of their position. They do not shun the bitter truth that their very existence is imperilled, not only their material position but their innermost being; for he who threatens them is God himself. In this situation the faithful thus threatened make one last effort, a last bold venture, and in supplication throw themselves into the arms of this God. It is precisely because it is God who threatens them that he is their only help and that their affliction cannot be his final word. Verse 17 echoes the new testament picture of Jesus, the one at the right hand of God the Father – no wonder this was a popular psalm for Christians who saw their fulfilment in the coming of Christ Jesus.

19   Restore us again O Lord of hosts:
show as the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.

The affliction of their life of prayer, movingly expressed in the lament in verse 4, is thus overcome. Only now, too, the radiant light of the divine presence appears in all its fullness in the refrain’s petition, in which the people of God, assured of their salvation, find their way back to God and to themselves.

Thank you Fr Graham Alston for your weekly commentary on the appointed psalm.

PSALM 100 – Make a joyful noise to the Lord all you lands!

PSALM 100 – Make a joyful noise to the Lord all you lands!

SUNDAY 22^ND NOVEMBER 2021

CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY

1.         O shout to the Lord in triumph all the earth:
serve the Lord with gladness
and come before his face with songs of joy.

2.         Know that the Lord he is God:
 it is he who has made us, and we are his we are his people
and the sheep of his pasture.

3.         Come into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise:
give thanks to him and bless his holy name.

4.         For the Lord is good his mercy is for ever:
his faithfulness throughout all generations.

 

Imagine that you are in the vast golden courtyard of the temple when music sounds and choir of men sing out:

O shout to the Lord in triumph all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness and come before his face with songs of joy.

And you know, like the bells that ring at the start of our worship that worship is about to begin! We gather, moving toward the great fire of the holocaust altar and the bronze sea, the excitement is almost palpable. The chorus replies and with all your fellows you sing out the refrain:

Know that the Lord he is God: it is he who has made us, and we are his we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

There is a real sense of expectancy and hope, things have not been going well since last spring; there was a low yield to the barley, and two of your sheep were killed by lions. The political situation was all topsy-turvy with the Egyptians to the south and rumblings of the Assyrians to the north. The high priest and his fellow priests are tense and upset because of this prophetic activity, going on around Jerusalem.

All this pales into the background of your mind as the rest of the people join with the priestly choir and respond with heartfelt joy:

Come into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise:
give thanks to him and bless his holy name.

There is lots of movement as the crowd streams upwards and toward the singers. You murmur that ‘Yes, it is good to give him thanks.’ This where I belong as a member of the people of Israel despite the things that may have gone wrong it is still the Lord God who has rescued me and my family, and I am here to give him praise!

For the Lord is good his mercy is for ever:
his faithfulness throughout all generations.

Despite the lows of the year, and the problems we still face I can still say, ‘For the Lord is good his mercy is for ever’. And this is the chorus of all my fellow Israelites!

The joy expressed in this psalm is simultaneously derived from God and joy in God; it emanates from him and returns to him, and in that process lies the deepest meaning of old testament worship. The hymn ‘Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices’ shows that the Christian church, too, lives by this fountain of piety.

Thank you Fr Graham Alston for your weekly narrative of the psalms.

 

PSALM 123 LOOKING UPWARDS TO GOD (A pilgrim's song)

 

PSALM 123      LOOKING UPWARDS TO GOD (A pilgrim song)

APPOINTED PSALM - SUNDAY 15TH NOVEMBER 2020

MISSION SUNDAY

This brief and unpretentious prayer is grouped around a single word-picture imbued with moving tenderness. It springs from disposition of heartfelt and profound piety. Here an individual takes the affliction of his people so greatly to his heart that he makes it the object of his prayer; even from a purely stylistic point of view this has been expressed by the transition from the style of personal prayer to that of community prayer.

1   To you I lift up my eyes:
you who are enthroned in the heavens.

The background of the psalm can be inferred from vv. 3 f. The nation has long been exposed to the contempt and scorn of arrogant adversaries. This may be that the poem was written when the pressure weighed heavily upon the people in post-exilic times under the overlordship of Persia; it is, however, also possible that their affliction has been due to conflicts within the nation itself. The words which the worshipper uses in his opening prayer make clear how he conceives of his own position in relation to God. Amid the distress caused by his depressing situation he has lift his eyes to him who sits enthroned in heaven. In doing so he is aware of the immense difference between his human powerlessness and the greatness of the power of the heavenly King, on which alone he depends. His words express humble submission, but at the same time also firm trust.

2   As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master:
or as the eyes of a maid toward the hand of her mistress,

His consciousness of the attitude that is fitting before Yahweh is expressed even more distinctly in the peculiar line he takes in meditation in v. 2. He no longer visualizes himself as being alone face to face with God—after all, it is not a private concern which he presents in his prayer——but unites in a fellowship of prayer with his fellow believers, who with yearning await their encounter with God. The poet expresses in a simple and impressive simile what links the members of the congregation together before God in their common affliction. Like the eyes of the servants to the hand of their master and the eyes of the maids to the hand of their mistress, so their eyes look to God, their Lord. It expresses reverential awe, submission and humility, which are the result of the awareness of being utterly dependent on the sovereign will and power of God, as on the Lord with whom nobody can interfere; but at the same time it also expresses devoted love and trustful hope in the fatherly care that God, as the Lord, will give his own. It is only when both these sentiments combine that the genuine attitude of prayer is achieved. Reverential awe restrains the worshipper from encroaching upon the majesty of God through importunate petition, while trusting love alone makes it possible for him to pray with confidence and to confide his affliction to God in prayer. Thus at the end of the verse the waiting for the moment when God will appear and ‘look graciously upon’ his people is not to be understood in the sense that the members of the congregation want to press their human desires on God, but rather that in spite of the utter urgency of their concern they are yet satisfied to wait patiently upon the Lord, to whom they show the honour due to him by their whole-hearted surrender to his mercy. This has nothing whatsoever to do with a cowardly ‘slave mentality’; on the contrary, only by humbly submitting to God is man set free from any kind of cringing submission to the power of men, so that he is able to resist any attempt to bring him low through human pressure.

3   So our eyes look to the Lord our God:
until he shows us his mercy.

4   Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us:
for we have had our fill of derision.

The humble trust with which the worshipper lifts his eyes to God provides the background for his petition, ‘Be gracious to us, O Lord.’ The poet is a man of few words. His attitude expresses the spirit of prayer more effectively than an abundance of fine words could do. It is not until he adds a reason to his petition that the tenderness of his trust and the purity and restraint of his surrender to God appear in their true light; for it makes us realize how grievously the worshipper and his people suffer from the contempt of the proud oppressors, so that the lifting up of his eyes to God is the only light that shines in that darkness.

5   Our souls overflow with the mockery of those at ease:
and with the contempt of the proud.

And when he candidly confesses before him that humanly speaking all patience to endure such scorn is at an end, even these words of bitter complaint still reflect that heartfelt trustfulness which makes the whole poem one of the finest examples of piety, expressed in prayer – simple, truthful, natural and sincere.

Thank you Fr Graham Alston for your weekly narrative on the appointed psalm.

PSALM 78 – RIDDLES PRESENTED BY HISTORY

 

PSALM 78 – RIDDLES PRESENTED BY HISTORY

APPOINTED PSALM FOR SUNDAY 8^TH NOVEMBER 2020

22^ND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

History is always a subject of intrigue – it is studied and read with the intention of trying to understand the vagaries of human behaviour. The Hebrew or Israelites had a strong sense of history because their God met with them and communicated with them, making promises and asking for their commitment to him. Much of the Old Testament deals with the historical and covenantal relationship of these people with their God. This is a God who makes covenant with a people who regularly break the covenant.

1       Give heed to my teaching O my people:
incline your ears to the words of my mouth,

2       For I will open my mouth in a parable:
and expound the mysteries of former times.

This an instructive poem of some 72 verses, we read only some 7 verses and from them we discover the riddles of history that affected the way people thought in the days before the Kingdom of Israel was divided at the end of Solomon’s reign. So, the leader of the liturgy would use these words to call people’s attention to what is taking place.

3       What we have heard and known:
what our forefathers have told us,

4       We will not hide from their children
but declare to a generation yet to come:
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord
his mighty and wonderful works.

The people are raised to pass on the historic traditions to the children that come after them. The rituals that take place each year may be not clear to the young ones but the responsibility to pass it on is in the hands of the parents. They are there not to have good time worshipping but to take that into their hearts and give it to their children so that it is ‘declared to a generation yet to come.’ We have not always done that with our own children - been enthusiastic about the fact you have lived dependent on God so far, so that they catch the excitement of being with God.

5       He established a law in Jacob and made a decree in Israel:
which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,

The historical is suggested in the naming of Jacob, one of the patriarchs who wrestled with God and received a promise of land. That promise was based upon a commitment to keep God’s rules and ordinances and being faithful and obedient through them to God.

6       That future generations might know
and the children yet unborn:
that they in turn might teach it to their sons;

7       So that they might put their confidence in God:
and not forget his works but keep his commandments,

The poem attempts to remind the people that they had, at some stage in their journey with God, failed him. The objective of the psalm is an attempt to prevent this past failure occurring in the next generation. We need to be sure of our traditions so that our children can be included in the benefits of walking with God.

Thank you Fr Graham Alston for your weekly narrative on the appointed psalms

PSALM 34 

O TASTE, AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD

ALL SAINTS DAY
22ND NOVEMBER 2020

Because of verse 8 this psalm was used in the ancient church liturgy as a thanksgiving psalm at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. It was recited in festival services of the community of the godly, who are called ‘the humble, the saints the righteous’ (vv 2b, 3, 6, and 8). There are no recollections of actual events that the poet wishes to say thank you but a general overarching thankfulness for God’s goodness to the people. Though we continue to pray for those caught up in the COVID-19 pandemic we can think of those who caught it and survived and give thanks in the way the poet does in this psalm!

1       I will bless the Lord continually
his praise shall be always in my mouth.

2       Let my soul boast of the Lord:
the humble shall hear it and rejoice.

3       O praise the Lord with I me:
let us exalt his name together.

The hymnic announcement at the opening of the poem with the singing of a thanksgiving already expresses the profound perception that the whole life of a God-fearing person is intended to serve the praise of God. Envisaging in this manner the majesty of God in their corporate praise, the members of the community (us) organically grow together and become the body of the faithful – such as the humble or the saints. Hence the choice of this psalm for All Saint’s Day, today’s festival.

4       For I sought the Lord's help and he answered:
and he freed me from all my fears.

5       Look towards him and be bright with joy:
your faces shall not be ashamed.

6       Here is a wretch who cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him from all his troubles.

7       The angel of the Lord encamps round I those who fear him:
and delivers them in their need.

The consciousness of being a member of the community of the godly and being united with the other members in fellowship also determines the manner in which the worshipper presents the answering of his prayer and his deliverance, in that his thoughts pass on from his own experience to the general experience of those who fear God.

8       O taste and see that the Lord is good:
happy the man who hides in him!

The celebrant calls all to come and share in the supper of the Lord. No wonder that when we do it is like tasting the goodness of the Lord – gone are the spiritualising influences – here we taste the Lord and He becomes part of us – all of creation is joined in the Eucharist of Christ.

The poet is sensitive to the high quality of the reality of God’s goodness and to his living presence to such a high degree that they actually become for him objects which he is able to perceive with his senses since they are so near to him (‘taste and see’) and inspire him to sing with joy the praise of the blessedness of those who find their refuge in God.

9       Fear the Lord all you his holy ones:
for those who fear him never lack.

10    Lions may suffer want and go hungry:
but those who seek the Lord lack nothing good.

The extravagant contrast between these people and the lions which suffer want and hunger, similarly, arises from the happiness felt by the human heart brimming over with joy in the goodness of God. In comparison with the feeding of the lions, the people of God have infinitely more.

22    The Lord ransoms the lives of all his servant
and none who hide in him will be destroyed.

With this last thought the worshipper once more reverts to his own experience and in his statement concerning suffering of the righteous throws out a hint that he by no means advocates a ’naïve superficial belief in retribution’ nor conceives of happiness in life as consisting in an ‘easy life’ for the Godly in the customary sense.

Thank you Fr Graham Alston for your narrative on the appointed psalm

 

PSALM 90

 

PSALM 90: 1-6; 13-17 – THE ETERNAL GOD

Appointed psalm for 25th October 2020

21st Sunday after Pentecost

The solemn and earnest spirit with which this psalm is imbued, and the nobility and comprehensiveness of its thought give it an authority which is not easy to evade. I suggest that we may look through Moses eyes in the telling of this Psalm. He has reached the end and is standing on mount Pisgah looking over to the promised land to which he has been headed all his life. Now it dawns on him that he will not go there. He embraces that painful reality that his life pursuit of fidelity will stop short of fruition. He submits to that reality from God – but that does not stop the yearning.

1       Lord you have been our refuge:
from one generation to another.

2       Before the mountains were born
or the earth and the world were brought to be:
from eternity to eternity you are God.

These two verses are a meditative reflection on the realities that may result in such a disposition of trust, obedience, and submission. It may be that out of a serious separation that the poet sticks so firmly to the opening word: ‘Lord’ indicating that things have not been alright just recently but his faith brings him to the address of God without any such things as adjectives. This is an almost intimate way of addressing God without flowery language to embellish what is being said.

3       You turn man back into dust:
saying ‘Return to dust you sons of Adam.’

4       For a thousand years in your sight,
are like yesterday passing:
or like one watch of the night.

5       You cut them short like a dream:
like the fresh grass of the morning;

6.     In the morning it is green and flourishes
at evening it is withered and dried up

These verses are a reflection on the limitedness and transitoriness of human life. The poet is aware that the human creature is a “dust creature” destined for dust. The two metaphors of dust and grass serve to characterise the true relationship between God and the poet.

There is a break at this point and the last verses make up the rest of these thoughts.

 

The final verses are a vigorous complaint. It is like being glad to be at home but then immediately announcing that the home is not adequate and there is a serious need for a transformation of things. Still, in the midst of disorientation, this persistent faith does battle toward newness. Trust in YAHWEH leads to a zealous insistence on change, and the change is wrought through a lament.

13    Relent O Lord how long will you be angry?
take pity on your servants.

The most interesting rhetorical feature is the intense imperative “return” (relent). YAHWEH turns humankind to dust. Now YAHWEH is summoned to make a turn. It is YAHWEH’s work to turn misery to joy.

14    O Satisfy us early with your mercy:
that all our days we may rejoice and sing.

15    Give us joy for all the days you have afflicted us;
for the years we have suffered adversity

16    Show your servants your work;
and let their children see your glory,

Verses 14-16 show the characteristics of the lament with the imperatives, ‘satisfy’, ‘give’ and ‘show’ asking God to intervene in the lives of the people.

17    May the gracious favour of the Lord our God be upon us:
prosper the work of our hands
O prosper the work of our hands!

Verse 17 concludes the psalm with a prayer asking God to make our works prosper in the same way that God’s hands prospered in the creation we have been given. The poet has looked at it squarely in the face and has concluded that our situation is not all dust and grass, but by the one who makes us at home safely.

Thank you Fr Graham Alston for your weekly commentary on the appointed psalm

 

PSALM 99    THE HOLY GOD

20^th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday 18th October 2020

This is one of those psalms that records the condition of well-being in the community: it is focussed not on the wealth or peace of the land but on the almighty goodness of God. Our perceptions of God are often coloured by the sense of righteousness of God – if he does something it is always good and just – at least so we think.

1       The Lord is king let the nations tremble:
he is enthroned upon the cherubim let the earth quake.

Why is the image of trembling and quaking so much part of this royal coming? In human terms it is based on fear – afraid of being in the presences of such a holy and mighty King often in a sense of our unworthiness.

2       The Lord is great in Zion:
he is high above all nations.

3       Let them praise your great and terrible name:
for holy is the Lord.

In verses 2 & 3 we find two qualities of the Mighty One: he loves Justice, and he is Holy. The justice of God makes a difference to situations, where the poor are mistreated the justice of God brings punishment but at the same time the holiness of God brings mercy and grace. Hold those two together and we begin to gain an in insight into the ineffability of God.

4       The Mighty One is king and loves justice:
you have established equity you have dealt righteousness and justice in Jacob.

5       O exalt the Lord our God: and bow down before his footstool for he is holy.

The first line of verse 4 is a repetition of the first line in verse 1 and seems like a chorus but its purpose is to move us onto another aspect of God’s sovereignty. God loves justice. It is he who has established the rule of law that governs the life of the people of Israel.

The intimate character of this section receives special emphasis from the fact the hymn now turns to the prayer style of dialogue with God. The congregation are now called upon to worship with awe and thanksgiving in the joyous hope of the coming of the righteous rule of their God over the whole world. The Good News we celebrate is also a hope for the rule of God over the world in Christ Jesus.

6       Moses and Aaron among his priests and Samuel among those who call upon his name
they called to the Lord and he answered.

7       He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud:
they kept to his teachings and the law that he gave them.

8       You answered them O Lord our God:
you were a forgiving God to them and pardoned their wrongdoing.

The greatest statement the poet can make with regard to God’s nature is neither that God’s universal might has a power to shake the whole world nor that God has established rule of law that governs every life, but that he has shown himself to be the God of grace.

Even in his grace God remains a holy God. And that holiness manifests itself in the fact that the utter seriousness of the righteousness by which he punishes the sins of humankind invariably continues to hold its own side by side with seriousness of the love by which he forgives sins.

9       O exalt the Lord our God:
and bow down towards his holy hill,
for the Lord our God is holy.

Having reached this culminating point, the hymn quite naturally ends in a call to the congregation to praise God, worship and adore him. This verse simultaneously expresses their difference from God and their bond with him, their awe and terror and their joyful confidence. It is the joint effect of both these which alone is able to produce the true note of biblical faith.

Thank you, Fr Graham Alston for your weekly commentary on the appointed psalm