May 16: Psalm 24
The King of Glory enters the gates
11.11.11.11 Foundation (How Firm a Foundation)
St. Denio (Immortal, Invisible)
The earth and the riches with which it is stored,
The world and its dwellers, belong to the Lord.
For He on the seas its foundation has laid,
And firm on the waters its pillars has stayed.
O who shall the mount of Jehovah ascend?
Or who in the place of His holiness stand?
The man of pure heart and of hand without stain,
Who has not sworn falsely nor loved what is vain.
He shall from Jehovah a blessing receive;
The God of salvation shall righteousness give.
Thus looking to Him is a whole bless-ed race,
All those who, like Jacob, are seeking Your face.
O gates, lift your head! Ageless doors, lift them high!
The great King of glory to enter draws nigh!
O who is the king that in glory draws near?
The Lord, mighty Lord of the battle is here!
O gates, lift your heads! Ageless doors, lift them high!
The great King of glory to enter draws nigh!
This great King of glory, O Who can He be?
Jehovah of hosts, King of glory is He!
Psalm 24 is a celebration of the Lord’s entrance into that heavenly sanctuary and royal court of heaven. But “who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” This “blessing from the Lord and righteousness” is the eternal redemption won for us by the sacrifice of Jesus. This King of Glory comes to the entrance of heaven with the blood of the conflict still fresh upon Him and a kind of dialogue takes place as the angels call for the opening of the portcullis at the approach of the returning Warrior: “Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.” By virtue of the redemption, all of creation belongs to this Jesus, King and Priest. Thus, the psalm begins: “The earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.” (Reardon, p. 45-46)
May 15: Psalm 40
God helps His servant
Common meter 86.86 New Britain (Amazing Grace), p. 29
I waited for the Lord my God, I waited patiently;
And He in mercy heard my cry, inclined His ear to me.
He brought me up out of the pit, out from the miry clay;
He set my feet upon a rock, there firm to stand and stay.
He put a new song in my mouth, God’s praise for all to hear;
And many now will trust the Lord, who see and learn to fear.
How blest the one who trusts the Lord, trusts not the false nor proud;
Who sees the wonders God has done, and sings His praise aloud.
For many are Thy thoughts toward us, with You none can compare;
Far more than I could ever count, more than I could declare.
An off’ring You have not required, but rather pierced my ears;
Burnt off’ring You have not desired, but rather, one who hears.
And so I said, “Behold, I come; it is prescribed for me;
Within Your scroll to do Your will, Your law my heart receives.”
I have proclaimed deliverance, glad news for all to hear;
You know I’ve not restrained my lips from speaking far and near.
I have not hidden righteousness alone within my heart;
But spoken of Your faithfulness; Your truth I did impart.
I’ve not concealed your steadfast love, Your faithfulness of old;
To all the congregation here I’ve your salvation told.
For You don’t hide Your mercy, Lord, or keep it far from me;
Your steadfast love and faithfulness keep me continually.
For evils have surrounded me, iniquities flood me,
More than the hairs upon my head; my heart fails within me.
O Lord, my God, deliver me, be pleased to be my aid;
Make haste, for many seek my life; let them now be dismayed.
Let those be turned back, put to shame, who in my harm delight;
Leave them appalled and desolate, who would destroy my light.
Let those who taunt me be appalled; Let them be brought to shame
who say to me, “Aha, aha!” and harm my life and name.
Let those who seek You now rejoice, all who in You abide;
Let those You save, say with one voice, “The Lord be magnified!”
Since I’m in need, afflicted, Lord, remember me this day;
You are my help, my Savior sure; O God, do not delay.
The correct “voice” for Psalm 40 is not in doubt. We know from Hebrews 10 that these are words springing from the heart of Christ our Lord and have reference to the sacrificial obedience of His Passion and death. We begin, then, by examining that interpretive context in Hebrews. The prescriptions of the Mosaic Law, says Hebrews, possessed only “a shadow of the good things to come.” The sacrifices of the old covenant did not really take away sins, and their effectiveness depended entirely on the sacrifice of the cross, of which they were only a foreshadowing. Indeed, “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Heb.10: 4). In support of this thesis, the author of Hebrews quotes our psalm: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire…In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.” Christ’s own obedience to God’s will is the key to our psalm, and Hebrews goes on to quote the pertinent verses, referring them explicitly to the Incarnation and Sacrifice of Jesus the Lord (Psalm 40:6-8). The body “prepared” for Christ in the Incarnation became the instrument of His obedience to that “will” of God by which we are redeemed and rendered holy (Heb. 10: 10,14). The various sacrifices of the Old Testament, which are spoken of from time to time throughout the Book of Psalms, have now found their perfection in the one self-offering of Jesus the Lord. (Reardon, p. 77-78)
May 14: Psalm 54
The God who saves
87.87 D Beach Spring, p. 170
Restoration/Pleading Savior (both tunes for Come, ye Sinners)
Beecher (Love Divine, All Loves Excelling), p. 149
By Your name, O God, now save me; grant me justice by Your might.
To these words of mine give answer; hear my prayers, O God of light.
Strangers have come up against me, violent men against me fight
And they seek my life’s destruction; God is not within their sight.
See how God has been my helper, how my Lord sustains my soul:
To my foes He pays back evil—in Your truth destroy them all!
I will sacrifice with gladness; and Your name, O Lord, will praise.
He has saved me from all trouble; o’er my foes my eyes has raised.
We Christians, of course, know that the historical David was himself a prefiguration, a living prophecy, of the true King yet to come, and we believe that the divine promises made with respect to David’s messianic throne are fulfilled in the Kingdom of Jesus, at once David’s descendant and his Lord. Following the lead of Jesus Himself (Luke 24:44), we interpret the psalms in the light – the theological light – of this fulfillment of biblical prophecy. We come to the psalms completely with what Paul called “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). Our interest in the psalms, or indeed in any part of the Bible, is a Christian interest. As we pray in the church liturgy, “You are our God, and we know no other than You.” Psalm 54 may serve to illustrate this interpretive principle. The title or inscription at the head of this psalm describes it with reference to an incident in the life of David, which sends us to 1 Samuel 23:14-20 for the context. This is a psalm about betrayal. The assiduous reader of the Gospel, therefore, should have no great trouble recognizing the correct interpretive setting of this psalm, or discerning the “voice” that prays it. This is a psalm properly understood from within “the mind of Christ,” for it describes both His anguish at the betrayal that sent Him to suffering and death, and His full assurance of final vindication in the paschal glory. (Reardon, p. 105-106)
May 13: Psalm 114
The earth-shaking exodus
Long meter 88.88 Truro (Lift up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates), p. 89
Duke Street (Jesus Shall Reign), p. 80
Old 100th (Doxology), p. 99
Tallis Canon, p. 109
This psalm is a celebration of the Exodus-—it is one of the Hallel psalms that was sung by the Jews during the Passover Feast. But it doesn’t just reflect upon the Exodus alone; when God’s hand is extended to deliver, the entire creation arises and everything is shaken. In this psalm, the Red Sea and Jordan River are both turned back, the mountains skip like rams, and the rocks burst forth with water. Everything that is normal is upturned; everything in His path is shaken (Hebrews 12:26-29).
When Isr’el had from Egypt gone, Jacob from men of speech unknown;
Then Judah was His holy place, and His dominion Isr’el’s race.
The sea was frightened, saw and fled; the Jordan river filled with dread;
The lofty mountains skipped like rams, and all the little hills like lambs.
What ailed you, that you fled, O sea? O Jordan, that you back did flee?
You mountains, that you skipped like rams? And all you little hills like lambs?
O tremble, earth! The Lord is near: before the God of Jacob, fear;
Who from the rock did water bring, and made the flint a waterspring.
From the perspective of style, this psalm is a perfect illustration of Hebraic parallelism, a feature found in so much of the Bible’s poetry and the aphorisms of its wisdom literature. The references to Egypt/barbarous people, mountains/hills, stone/flint, rams/lambs, sanctuary/domain, are synonymous parallels, in that they are roughly repetitious. They serve the function of slowing down our prayer, making us take a calmer, more contemplative pace, forcing the mind to a second and more serious look at the line, prolonging our prayer and obliging us not to go rushing off somewhere. There are two events described in this psalm, the turning back of the Red Sea at the Exodus, and the identical phenomenon of the Jordan River at Israel’s entrance into Canaan. These two occasions form the psalm’s twin poles, Israel’s departure from Egypt and her entrance into the Promised Land. Between these two events lie the giving of the Law and the forty years’ wandering of God’s people in the wilderness. Whereas the two poles of that crucial period, the Red Sea and the Jordan, are marked by God’s removal of the waters from their native settings, the time in between them is marked by God’s miraculously giving water for His people wandering through the dry sands of the desert. God, in short, reverses the expected course of things. He makes wet places dry, and dry places wet. Everything is set on its head. It is this complete dominion of the Lord that is manifested in His great acts of redemption. (Reardon, p. 225-226)
May 12: Psalm 107
Adversity and deliverance
Common meter double 86.86 D Kingsfold, p. 60
Llangloffan, p. 69
Notice that there is a refrain at the end of each of the four descriptions of adversity (the refrain is found in verses 8-9, 15-16, 21-22, 31-32). Try using the tune Forest Green (p. 70) for these refrains, as a way of narrating the story with a common closure to each section.
O praise the Lord, for He is good; His mercies still endure;
Thus say the ransomed of the Lord, from all their foes secure.
He gathered them from out the lands, from north, south, east, and west.
They wandered in the wilderness, no city found to rest.
Their weary soul fainted in them when thirst and hunger pressed
In trouble to the Lord they cried; He saved them from distress.
He made the way before them straight and He became their guide.
That they might to a city go in which they would abide.
(8-9) Let them give thanks unto the Lord for all His kindness shown,
And for His works so wonderful which He to men makes known.
Because the longing soul by Him with food is satisfied;
The hungry soul that looks to Him with goodness is supplied.
Some people in the darkness lived, in death’s shade did abide,
The prisoners of misery with chains of iron tied,
Because against the words of God they in rebellion turned,
And counsel of the One Most High they had despised and spurned.
He therefore humbled them with toil; they fell without redress.
In trouble to the Lord they cried; He saved them from distress.
He brought them out of darkness great and took them from death’s shade;
He broke apart the iron bands which had them helpless made.
(15-16) Let them give thanks unto the Lord for all His kindness shown,
And for His works so wonderful which He to men makes known.
For He the mighty gates of bronze has shattered with a stroke;
He cut the bars of iron off and them asunder broke.
For trespass and iniquity fools were afflicted here.
Their soul abhorred all food; and they to gates of death drew near.
In trouble to the Lord they cried; He saved them from distress;
He sent His word to make them whole and lift from wretchedness.
(21-22) Let them give thanks unto the Lord for all His kindness shown,
And for His works so wonderful which He to men makes known.
And let them offer thanks to Him, the sacrifice of praise;
His works let them declare abroad, in songs their voices raise.
To those who go to sea in ships and on great waters trade,
The works and wonders of the Lord are in the deep displayed.
For His command stirred up the wind that with a tempest blows;
It lifted waters of the sea; great rolling waves arose.
To heaven mounted ships and men, then sank to depths again;
Their souls were melted and were faint with fear and trouble then.
They staggered, reeled, like drunken men; no skill could they express,
In trouble to the Lord they cried; He saved them from distress.
The storm He changed into a calm by His command and will,
And so the waves which raged before now quiet were and still.
Then they were glad, because at rest and quiet was the sea.
He led them to the haven thus where they desired to be.
(31-32) Let them give thanks unto the Lord for all His kindness shown.
And for His works so wonderful which He to men makes known.
Among the people where they meet let them exalt His name.
And where the elders have their seat let them His praise proclaim.
He changes streams to wilderness and springs to thirsty ground,
A fruitful land to salty waste, when peoples’ sins abound.
He turns the desert to a lake, dry land to water springs,
And that they may prepare a home the hungry there He brings.
They plant their vineyards, sow their fields; rich harvest there they grow;
His blessing makes them multiply, their herds no decrease know.
Again they much diminished are and brought to low estate
Through sorrow and adversity and through oppression great.
For He contempt on princes pours; He lets them go astray
And wander in the wilderness where there is not a way.
But He from trouble lifts the poor by setting them on high,
And like a flock in families he makes them multiply.
When this the upright ones observe, they greatly shall rejoice,
And all unrighteousness, ashamed, shall cease to raise its voice.
Is any wise? He’ll heed these things which verses here record,
And he’ll consider well the love and kindness of the Lord.
Psalm 107 describes a series of adversities suffered by God’s servants, along with His continued intervention to deliver them from all such troubles. It is an historical meditation for attaining contemplative wisdom; its final line asks, “Who is wise and will guard these things, and will understand the mercies of the Lord?” The psalm summons us to meditate on what the Lord has done in our midst and on our behalf, “that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12). Psalm 107 is a call to that profound effort of thought and praise. (Reardon, p. 211-212)
May 11: Psalm 106
Lessons from history—Israel’s rebellion and unfaithfulness
Common meter double 86.86 D Llangloffan, p. 69
Promised Land, p. 79
O praise the Lord! O thank the Lord! For bountiful is He;
Because His lovingkindness lasts to all eternity.
Who can express Jehovah’s praise or tell His deeds of might?
O blessed are they who justice keep and ever do the right.
Regard me with the favor, Lord, which Thou dost bear to Thine.
O visit Thou my soul in love; make Thy salvation mine;
That I may see Thy people’s good and in their joy rejoice,
And may with Thine inheritance exult with cheerful voice.
With all our fathers we have sinned, iniquity have done;
We have gone on in wickedness, in evil ways have run.
Our fathers did not understand Thy works in Egypt done;
Of all Thy many mercies shown, they did remember none.
Though at the sea, the Sea of Reeds, they were rebellious grown,
He saved them for His own name’s sake, to make His pow-er known.
And so the Red Sea He rebuked; it dried at His command.
And then He led them through the depths as through the desert land.
And from the hand that hated them, He did His people save,
And from the hand of enemies to them redemption gave.
The waters overwhelmed their foes; none lived of all their throng.
His people then believed His words and praised His name in song.
The people soon forgot His works, nor waited for His will;
They lusted in the wilderness, and God they tempted still.
He filled them with the meat they craved, a plague made their reward.
Men envied Moses, Aaron scorned, one holy to the Lord.
The op’ning earth on Dathan closed, Abiram’s band entombed;
A fire blazed in their company and wicked ones consumed.
Yet they at Horeb made a calf, before an image kneeled;
They made their glory like an ox that eats grass in the field.
Then God their Savior they forgot, great things in Egypt done,
In Ham’s land, by the Sea of Reeds, His awesome deeds each one.
He said He’d cut them off, unless before Him in the way
He’d chosen Moses there to stand and turn His wrath away.
Then they despised the pleasant land, did not believe His word,
But, grumbling in their tents, refused to hearken to the Lord.
He therefore swore to cast them down there in the desert sands,
Among the nations cast their seed, and scatter through the lands.
They yoked themselves to Baal Peor, ate off’rings to the dead,
Provoked His anger with their deeds; the plague among them spread.
Then Phin’has stood and interposed, and so the plague was stayed;
Forever this as righteousness to his account was paid.
At Meribah they angered Him, on Moses evil brought,
For they provoked his temper so his speech was rash and hot.
They would not heed the Lord’s command the heathen tribes to slay,
But mingled with the nations all and learned their evil way.
When they the heathen idols served, these were to them a snare,
For they to demons sacrificed their sons and daughters there.
They poured out guiltless blood, the blood their sons and daughters shed
When they, to idols sacrificed, on Canaan’s altars bled.
Polluted was the land with blood, and thus defiled were they
In all their works; and with their acts they went the harlot’s way.
Against the people kindled was the anger of the Lord;
They so provoked His wrath that He His heritage abhorred.
He gave them to the nations’ pow’r, put haters in command;
Their foes oppressed them, and they were subdued beneath their hand.
He many times delivered them, but rebels still were they
In all their plans, so down they went in sin to pine away.
Yet their distress He looked upon when He had heard their cry,
And He remembered for their sake His covenant on high.
Then He relented in His grace and for His mercies’ sake;
He gave them pity from all those who did them captive take.
Save us, O Lord, our gracious God, from heathen lands reclaim,
That we may glory in Thy praise and thank Thy holy name.
Bless’d be Jehovah, Isr’el’s God, to all eternity.
Let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise to the Lord, give ye.
Whereas Psalm 105 uses historical narrative as an outline for the praise of God for His deeds of salvation, Psalm 106 uses it as the structure of a sustained confession of sins and the ongoing motive for repentance. The praise of God in this psalm, then, springs from the consideration of God’s fidelity to His people notwithstanding their own infidelities to Him: “Praise the Lord, for He is gracious, for His mercy endures forever!” The examples of the people’s continued sin are drawn from the accounts of the Exodus and the Desert Wandering, a period of such egregious unfaithfulness that only a few of that entire generation were finally permitted to enter the Promised Land. This poetic narrative, which summarizes much of the Books of Exodus and Numbers, deals with the period of the Desert Wandering as a source of negative moral example: “Don’t let this happen to you.” Such is the approach to that period through much of biblical literature, from Deuteronomy 33 to 1 Corinthians 10. The gravity of this temptation, of course, arises from its resting on a solid truth. God is faithful to His promises; He will never abandon those who place their confidence in Him. The danger here is not that of excessive trust in God’s fidelity, but of not guarding sufficiently against human infidelity. (Reardon, p. 209-210)
May 10: Psalm 105
Lessons from history—God’s covenant faithfulness
Common meter double 86.86 D Ellacombe (Hosanna, Loud Hosanna), p. 130
Kingsfold, p. 60
O thank the Lord; on His name call. His deeds tell people all.
O sing to Him, sing psalms to Him, His wonders all recall.
Let hearts that seek the Lord rejoice, His holy name adore.
O seek Jehovah and His strength, His face seek evermore.
Remember all His miracles, the judgments He has done,
O Abrah’m’s children, serving Him all Jacob’s sons, His own.
He only is the Lord our God; His judgments fill the land.
He keeps in mind His covenant that it may always stand.
A thousand ages to endure commanded He His word,
With Abram made a covenant, the promise Isaac heard,
A covenant with Jacob sealed, a law for Is-ra-el:
“I will to you give Canaan’s land, where you as heir may dwell.”
When few in number, scarcely known, they sojourned in the land,
From nation on to nation went, a restless, wand’ring band,
He let none hurt them; for their sakes to kings he gave alarm:
“Touch not My own anointed ones, nor do My prophets harm.”
When He brought famine on the land and broke their staff of bread,
Our Joseph they sold as a slave He had sent on ahead.
His feet they hurt with fetters strong and him in irons did bind;
Till what he prophesied came true, the Lord’s word him refined.
The king, the peoples’ ruler, sent to loose and set him free;
He made him lord of all his house, guard of his wealth to be.
He gave him pow’r to bind at will the princes of the land,
To share his wisdom, and to make his elders understand.
When Is-ra-el to Egypt came, when Jacob journeyed west
To settle in the land of Ham, the Lord his children blessed.
He made them stronger than their foes, whose hearts He filled with hate
That made them hunt His people out, His servants chide and cheat.
Then He His servant Moses sent and Aaron whom He chose.
They miracles in Egypt wrought, His signs among their foes.
He darkness sent, the land made dark, so they His words might try.
He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die.
He made their land to swarm with frogs, kings’ chambers filled with them.
He spoke, and swarms of flies and gnats throughout their country came.
He gave them hail instead of rain, flashed lightning through their land;
He smote their fig trees and their vines, slashed trees on ev’ry hand.
He spoke, and countless locusts came, their fruits and leaves devoured.
He killed each firstborn in the land, the first-fruits of their power.
He led His people forth enriched with silver and with gold,
And there was none among His tribes who stumbled, young or old.
How glad was Egypt when they went! It shook with dread of them,
He spread a cloud to cover them; by night it shined like flame.
At their request He brought them quail; He bread from heav’n bestowed.
He split the rock and water gushed; through desert lands it flowed.
His holy promise He recalled, how Abrah’m served Him long.
He led His people forth with joy, His chosen ones with song.
The nations’ lands, the peoples’ toil, He gave them for their own,
That they should keep and heed His law. O praise the Lord alone.
In Israel’s historiography, the unifying theme is God’s governance of events through various interventions, whether by perceived phenomena or by that subtle, secret influence of divine activity that we have come to call God’s providence. One small biblical exercise in the narrative tracing of such history is Psalm 105, the first of three consecutive psalms structured around detailed historical narrative. While their varying constructions show no original relationship joining them, the first two are arranged in the Psalter is such a way as to suggest an overlapping sequence. Thus, Psalm 105 begins with Abraham and ends with the Sinai covenant, while Psalm 106 begins with the Exodus and ends with the period after the Conquest. The narrative of Psalm 105 breaks into three parts: the Patriarchs, the sojourn in Egypt, and the Exodus, all of them joined by the themes of God’s fidelity to His covenant promises and His active providence in fulfilling them. (Reardon, p. 207-208)
May 9: Psalm 104
The glory of God’s creation and God’s providential care of it
10.10.11.11 Lyons (O worship the King)
Hanover (Ye Servants of God)
My soul, bless the Lord! Lord God, You are great!
With honor arrayed, majestic in state,
You cover Yourself with a garment of light
And stretch out the sky as a curtain by night.
The beams of Your courts in waters You laid;
On wings of the wind Your pathway You made.
The clouds are Your chariot; the winds do Your will;
The flames and the lightnings Your pleasure fulfill.
You set up the earth on foundations sure,
That always it should unshaken endure.
The deep like a garment about it You cast;
The waters stood high; over mountains they passed.
But at Your rebuke the high waters fled;
Your thunder they heard and fast away sped.
The mountains arose, and the valleys sank low;
The place You appointed for them now they know.
To hold waters fast You set up their bound,
Lest turning again they cover the ground.
You make springs gush forth in the valleys below
And cause rushing streams between mountains to flow.
The beast of the field they furnish with drink;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst on the brink.
The birds make their nests in the trees by the spring;
And there in the branches they joyfully sing.
You water the hills with rain from Your sky,
With fruit of Your works the earth satisfy.
To nourish the cattle, You cause grass to grow;
For creatures who serve man the plants You bestow.
So man brings forth food by working the earth;
And wine that he grows his heart fills with mirth;
To make his face shine he extracts fragrant oil
And finds bread that strengthens his heart for his toil.
The trees of the Lord are all watered well;
Great cedars high up on Lebanon dwell.
There birds build their nests; the stork makes first its home.
On high rocks the badgers and goats safely roam.
The moon You have set the seasons to show;
The sun will its time for each setting know.
When You make the darkness, the night follows day,
And beasts of the forest creep forth seeking prey.
The young lions roar, from God begging meat,
But at the sunrise they quickly retreat,
And deep in their dens all day hide from the light,
While man works and labors abroad till the night.
How many works, Lord, in wisdom You’ve made!
How full on the earth, Your riches displayed!
Out yonder the ocean, how great and how wide,
Where small and great creatures unnumbered abide!
Where ships sail the deep, Leviathans play;
These all look to You to give food each day.
Whatever You give them they gather for food;
When Your hand You open You fill them with good.
When You hide Your face, bewildered they yearn.
When You take their breath, to dust they return.
When You send Your spirit, created are they.
The face of the ground you renew every day.
Forever O may the Lord’s glory stand!
The Lord shall enjoy each work of His hand.
He looks on the earth and it trembles in fear;
When He touches mountains, the smoke will appear.
I’ll sing to the Lord as long as I live,
Sing praise to my God while life He will give.
My thoughts about Him will sweet pleasure afford.
For I am rejoicing each day in the Lord.
Consumed from the earth let sinners then be;
The wicked in life no more let us see
And now, O my soul, blessing give to the Lord.
Let glad hallelujahs ring; O praise the Lord!
Psalm 104 is one of those psalms whose poetic flow has made it a favorite, and it is no surprise that the Church has long tended to pray it daily. The psalmist meditates on the various “days” of creation, starting with the vast expanse of the heavens, then the ministry of the angels, then the earth and its myriad phenomena, the various plants and diverse animals, from sparrows and rabbits to deer and lions, always with an emphasis on God’s generous provision for the needs of all. Psalm 104 combines consideration of the natural order with those of human commerce, suggestion a “cooperation” between God’s work and ours. This perspective is true with regard to both the land and the sea. Toward the end our psalm speaks of God’s Holy Spirit at work in the world: “You will send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created, and You will renew the face of the earth.” (Reardon, p. 205-206)
This is a glorious celebration of God’s creation; only the final verse gives a clue that this is not yet a finished portrayal of the glorious New Creation, for there are still sinners and wicked, those in willful rebellion, to be “consumed from the earth.” Only without the presence of sin will we dwell in a New Creation that is more glorious than any words can describe.
May 8: Psalm 94
Cry for the Lord’s vengeance and vindication
87.87 D Hyfrydol (Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus), p. 169
Ebenezer (O, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus)
Ode to Joy (Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee), p. 159
God of vengeance, O Jehovah; God of vengeance, O shine forth!
Rise up, O You Judge of Nations! Render to the proud their worth.
O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked boast?
Arrogant the words they pour out, evil men, a taunting host.
They, Jehovah, crush Your people and Your heritage distress;
They kill immigrants and widows, murder they the fatherless.
And they say, “Jehovah sees not; Jacob’s God does not have eyes.”
Understand, O foolish people! When, O fools, will you be wise?
Who the ear made, does He hear not? Who formed eyes, does He not see?
Who warns nations, does He smite not? Who men teaches, knows not He?
All the thoughts of men the Lord sees, knows that but a breath are they.
Bless’d the man whom You chastise, Lord, whom You teach to know Your Way.
Give him rest from days of trouble, till the wicked be o’erthrown.
Our Lord will not leave His people, will abandon not His own.
When to every verdict given justice shall come back again,
Everyone whose heart is upright will see righteous judgment then.
Who for me withstands the wicked? Who against wrong pleads for me?
If the Lord were not my helper, soon my soul would silent be.
If I say, “My foot is slipping!” Lord, Your mercy will uphold.
When my anxious thoughts are many, how Your comforts cheer my soul!
Can corrupted rulers join You who by laws do misery build?
They conspire against the righteous, sentence just ones to be killed.
But the Lord is still my stronghold; God, my Refuge, will repay,
He’ll for sin wipe out the wicked; them the Lord our God will slay.
God’s avenging justice with respect to the misdeeds of history is directed against humanity’s specified acts of injustice, some of which are enumerated in this psalm. It is common nowadays to imagine that the final divine avenging of the persecuted righteous is simply an “Old Testament idea,” whose time is now past in our New Tesatment dispensation . This is not true; God’s resolve seems really quite unaltered from one testament to the next with respect to “vengeance.” If the Lord did, somewhere along the line, modify His views about the propriety of executing vengeance on the earth, He failed to share the news with the Apostle John, for the latter mentions a “voice from heaven” proclaiming of Babylon: “Her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities…” Indeed, God “has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her” (Rev. 18:5-6 and 19:2). We have a native sense of moral truth, a truth fixed eternally in the structure of reality, that gives us a fundamental hope. It is this moral hope that tells us we are more than the animals, for an animal cannot reflect on the moral structure of the world. Among the final articles of the Nicene Creed we affirm that God is discriminating: “He will come again in glory to judge.” If this assertion were not true, the rest of the Creed would be worthless, for this assertion proclaims the vindication of our moral sense, the innate source of our hope. According to our psalm, it is this hope that God finally justifies. “The Lord has become my refuge,” we pray near the end, “and my God the helper of my hope.” (Reardon, p. 185-186)
May 7: Psalm 17
Prayer of the Righteous
Common meter 86.86 Azmon (O, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing), p. 49
New Britain (Amazing Grace), p. 29
Give ear to what is right, O Lord! O listen to my cry!
Give heed to this my earnest prayer from lips which do not lie.
May judgment from Your presence come which will me vindicate,
And always may Your searching eyes see what is just and straight.
For You have scrutinized my heart; You came to me by night.
You’ve probed and found no ill intent; my mouth speaks only right.
From acts of men, from violence I’m guarded by Your word;
My steps held closely to Your paths; my footsteps have not erred.
On You, O God, my soul has called, for You will answer me.
O listen to my earnest words! Incline Your ear to me!
In wondrous ways Your mercy show, O You, preserving those
Who seek to find at Your right hand a refuge from their foes.
Keep me the apple of Your eye; beneath Your wings me hide
From wicked men and deadly foes who press on every side.
They have closed off their hardened heart, their boasting words abound.
They compass us and fix their eyes to cast us to the ground.
My enemy’s a lion strong that craves to tear his prey.
He’s like a lion young that lurks in ambush every day.
Arise, O Lord. Confront my foe. O bring him very low!
O save my soul from wicked men! Let them feel Your sword’s blow.
Save me by Your own hand, O Lord, from worldly men of earth,
Who only in this present life know anything of worth.
You filled them with the wealth You stored, their children satisfied;
So they may leave enough behind their young ones to provide.
But as for me with righteousness shall I behold Your face,
I shall be satisfied to wake and see You face to face.
Psalm 17 pertains to the hope of Christ in the context of His death and burial. Its final line is the key to its interpretation: “But I will appear before Your face in righteousness; at beholding Your glory will I be satisfied.” Such was the hope of Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). It was in His Passion, then, that Jesus was put to the trial, and Psalm 17 is one of those psalms expressing His supplication to the Father in that setting. As this last line shows, the prayer of Jesus was that of a righteous man. Himself sinless, God’s Son became one with us in our fallen humanity, knowing fear and dread, but likewise trusting in God as a man. He assumed all that we are, in order that we, by Him, may be partakers of who He is. (Reardon, p. 31-32)
May 6: Psalm 99
God’s holiness enthroned and encountered
Short meter 66.86 Terra Beata (This is My Father’s World), p. 10
The Lord is King indeed! Let nations quake and fear!
He sits above the cherubim; the earth cannot draw near.
The Lord in Zion reigns, exalted over all;
Let nations praise His awesome name, most holy over all.
The power of the King delights in equity;
In Jacob You establish law, and rule most righteously.
Exalt the Lord our God, bow at His holy hill!
And at His footstool worship Him, forever holy still.
For Moses was His priest, and Aaron, too, did serve,
And Samuel was among those, too, who called upon the Lord.
God did receive their cry; He spoke from out the cloud;
His testimonies they obeyed, within His laws were found.
O Lord our God, You heard, and answer gave to them;
Were a forgiving God to them, and yet their deeds avenged.
Exalt the Lord our God, bow at His holy hill!
Behold, He is the Holy One, forever holy still.
Psalm 99 is among those psalms that speak of the Lord’s symbolic enthronement in that holy place of the “mercy seat” atop the Ark of the Covenant, overshadowed by the wings of the cherubim, behind the veil, within the Holy of Holies: “The Lord is King, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!” The psalm warns that the praise and adoration of God may not be separated from the doing of His will in holy obedience. As we read with regard to His three ancient servants, “They kept His testimonies, and the statute that He gave them.” The psalm likewise speaks of God’s reproving and forgiving the failings of these servants: “You were gracious to them, a forgiving God to them, and yet an avenger of their misdeeds.” The true Holy of Holies, however, that to which we ourselves draw near, is in “the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation (Heb. 9:11). The true “mercy seat” where God meets us is Christ our Lord. For us, to worship in the name of Jesus means to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). (Reardon, p. 195-196)
May 5: Psalm 36
Wickedness of man and the lovingkindness of God
Common meter 86.86 Azmon (O, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing), p. 49
St. Anne (O God, Our Help in Ages Past), p. 39
Dundee (God Works in a Mysterious Way), p. 40
An oracle is in my heart about the wicked man.
No fear of God before his eyes—in sinfulness he stands.
Because himself he flatters so in his own blinded eyes,
That he in his iniquity sees nothing to despise.
The words he utters with his mouth are wickedness and lies;
He has refrained from doing good and ceases to be wise.
His thoughts and plans upon his bed iniquity invent;
He sets himself in ways not good, from evil won’t relent.
Thy mercy, Lord, extends to heav’n; Thy faithfulness, the sky.
Thy righteousness like mountains high, Thy judgments depths defy.
Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. How precious, God, Thy grace!
Beneath the shadow of Thy wings men’s sons their trust shall place.
They with the bounty of Thy house shall be well satisfied;
From rivers full of Thy delights Thou dost their drink provide.
Because the fountain filled with life is only found with Thee;
And in that purest light of Thine we clearly light shall see.
To them that know Thee, evermore Thy lovingkindness show,
And still on men of upright heart Thy righteousness bestow.
Let not the foot of pride crush me, nor wicked hand detain.
There evildoers fall; thrust down, they cannot rise again.
Psalm 36 is a meditative prayer contrasting humanity’s wickedness with the mercy of God. The psalm commences with the sinner’s perverse delight in evil—those things traditionally called “the devices and desires of our own hearts.” People do not simply fall into evil. The psalm says that the wicked lie awake at night figuring out new ways to work evil: “He devises wickedness on his bed.” Using seven expressions (the biblical number of totality), the psalm describes the wicked one (verses 1-7). The biblical view of sin includes, not just human weakness, but human rebellion. The one here called the “lawless one” is in revolt against God. This free agent has declared his moral independence. The “fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom” is not part of his composition. In Romans 3, Paul says that we are all rebels against God. The contrast in Romans 3 is not between human evil and human goodness, but between human evil and divine mercy. This is also true of Psalm 36. Here, the characteristics of the lawless one are contrasted, not with those of a just man, but with the boundless divine mercy. This is not a psalm about human morality, but about the metaphysics of mercy. The sole cure for the rebellion in our hearts is the divine gift of mercy. Only God can heal our blindness: “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light, we see light.” (Reardon, p. 69-70)
May 4: Psalm 53
The biblical fool
Short meter 66.86 St. Thomas (I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord), p. 19 Trentham (Breathe on me, Breath of God)
Southwell (Lord Jesus, Think on Me), p. 50
“There is no God,” has said the foolish in his heart;
Corrupt are they; their works are vile; they all from good depart.
Upon the sons of men God looked from heav’n abroad,
To see if any understood, if any sought for God.
Together all are vile; they all are backward gone;
And there is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one.
Have men that evil work no knowledge gained at all,
Who eat my people as their bread, and on God do not call?
Great terror on them came, and they were much dismayed,
Although there was no cause why they should be at all afraid.
His bones who thee besieged God has dispersed abroad;
Thou hast them put to shame, because they were despised of God.
O that salvation, God would out of Zion bring!
Let Is-r’el’s help arise from Zion! God will bring
His captives! Jacob shall rejoice, and Is-ra-el shall sing.
When God restores His people, then all Israel shall sing.
Though Psalm 53 is almost completely identical with Psalm 14 (yesterday’s psalm), it is included twice in the Psalter for our instruction, and a second metrical setting of it with a different tune may bring further insight and reflection.
In Romans 3:10-12, the Apostle Paul quotes this text with special emphasis on the universal need for salvation. His point is that, strictly speaking, there are really no just people in this world, and he quotes our psalm text to prove the point:. “There is none who is righteous, no, not one; There is none who understand; There is none who seeks after God; There is none who does good, no, not one.” Paul is using our psalm here to address the major theme of Romans – that only God can justify us, and that God does so only in Jesus the Lord. People are helpless if left to their own capacities and accomplishments, and they are foolish to imagine otherwise. We do not have it within us to find God. We do not have it within us even to begin looking for God. We do not have it within us even to want to look for God. This is a very important truth taught in Holy Scripture, and it stands foursquare against any optimism about “man’s quest for God.” God can be sought only in the measure that He reveals Himself in holy grace. Whatever searching for God is undertaken by sinful human beings when left to their own devices, will invariably involve idolatry. This truth that the Epistle to the Romans finds in the Book of Psalms is central to our life of prayer. Christian devotion begins on the basis of God’s own self-revelation in holy grace. Worship is our Spirit-given response to God’s saving intervention in our destiny. (Reardon, p. 103-104)
May 3: Psalm 14
The biblical fool
76.76 D Munich (O Word of God, Incarnate), p. 129
Passion Chorale (O Sacred Head), p. 140
The fool in heart is saying, “There surely is no God.”
Corrupt and vile their deeds are; not one of them does good.
The Lord looks down from heaven on sons of men abroad
To see which one has wisdom, if any seeks for God.
All far astray have wandered; they all to vileness run.
Not one of them is righteous, no, not a single one.
Have they of truth no knowledge, these evilworkers all,
Who eat like bread my people and on God do not call?
There shall they be in terror for God is with the just;
They shame the poor and needy but Yahweh is his trust.
Salvation out of Zion who will to Isr’el bring?
The Lord brings back His captives. Joy, Jacob! Isr’el, sing!
Psalm 14 is almost identical with Psalm 53. It begins with what the fool says in his heart—“There is no God.” Taking this verse as thematic, we may say that the present psalm explores the relationship of atheism to folly. “Fool” in Holy Scripture is a word rather of moral than of purely intellectual reference. Folly, in the Bible, is a thing deliberately chosen. What is wrong with the biblical “fool” is always a matter of the heart. If the fool does not understand, it is because he is intentionally blind; he is hard of heart. So what does this fool say in this hardened heart of his? “There is no God.” In the Bible, that is to say, atheism is a sort of ultimate folly, a denial of what is virtually self-evident. In our present psalm, indeed, the reasoning of the atheist is actually a mere contrivance for corruption – the atheist does not want to know God. By way of explaining the motive for saying that “there is not God,” our psalmist continues: “They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good.” (quoted by Paul in Rom. 3:10-12) The folly of the fool, then, is not born of atheism. On the contrary, the atheism is born of the folly. The atheist does not know God, because he has chosen not to seek God. The constant, unreversed cultivation of sin leads in due course to total blindness, even blindness to what is self-evident. (Reardon, p. 25-26)
May 2: Psalm 79
A lament for God’s vindication
87.85 D St. Leonards (May the Mind of Christ My Savior)
God, into Thy holy temple heathen hordes have entrance made.
They defiled Thy house, Jerusal’m they in ruins laid.
They have cast Thy servants’ bodies to the fowls of heav’n for meat;
Flesh of Thy dear saints they’ve given to wild beasts to eat.
Round Jerusalem like water they Thy servants’ blood have shed.
There was no one there to bury bodies of the dead.
We’ve become to all our neighbors a derision and reproach.
We are scorned by those who, laughing, on us now encroach.
Lord, how long wilt Thou be angry? Will Thy wrath forever burn?
Will Thy blazing, jealous anger firelike on us turn?
Pour Thy wrath on heathen kingdoms who know not nor call Thy name,
Who devour and swallow Jacob, waste His land in flame.
Count not sins of all our fathers which upon us guilt bestow;
Let Thy mercy rush to meet us, now brought very low.
God of our salvation, help us! To Thy name the glory take.
Rescue us! Our sins forgive us for Thine own name’s sake.
“Where’s their God?” exclaim the nations. Make them with us see instead
How Thou justly art avenging blood Thy servants shed.
O let pris’ners’ sighs ascending come before Thee there on high.
By Thy mighty power preserve them who are doomed to die.
Pay back to our neighbors’ bosom seven times what they deserve
For reproaches they’ve been casting on Thee, Whom we serve.
We Thy flock of sheep, Thy people, then our thanks to you will raise.
On through every generation we’ll proclaim Thy praise.
In a holy impatience that the truth of God should be vindicated, “How long?” is a cry and a question often heard from the lips of the psalmist as well as the prophets. “How long?” is not a petition for personal vengeance…it is a prayer, rather, that God’s own justice be validated by decisive fact and that a very important article of the Creed be vindicated with utterly determined finality: “He will come again in glory to judge.” This “How long?” prayer also finds expression in Psalm 79: “Help us, O God our Savior; for the sake of the glory of Your name, O Lord, deliver us, and forgive us our sins for the sake of Your name, lest the nations say: ‘Where is their God?’ Let the vengeance of the blood of Your servants, which was poured out, be known among the nations in our sight.” Therefore, as our psalm surveys the ravages and wastes of our sinful history, with God’s house laid in ruins and the holy city reduced to a market, with the corpses of God’s servants given as food to the fowl of the air and the beasts of the field, and “their blood poured out like water round about Jerusalem,” we join our voices with the martyrs who cry aloud in Rev. 6:10, “How long?” to the Lord holy and true. (Reardon, p. 155-156)
May 1: Psalm 12
God preserves the righteous in the midst of godlessness
Common meter 86.86 Morning Song, p. 30
New Britain (Amazing Grace), p. 29 Dundee (God Works in a Mysterious Way), p. 40
O Thou, Jehovah, grant us help, because the godly cease;
And from among the sons of men the faithful now decrease.
And to his neighbor every one doth utter vanity;
They with a double heart do speak and lips of flattery.
The Lord will cut off all false lips, tongues that speak proudly thus:
“We’ll with our tongue prevail; our lips are ours, who’s lord o’er us?”
“Because the poor are sorely pressed, because the needy sighs,
To give the safety they desire,” the Lord say, “I’ll arise.”
Jehovah’s words are words most pure; they are like silver tried
In earthen furnace, seven times that has been purified.
Lord, Thou shalt them preserve and keep forever from this race.
On ev’ry side the wicked walk, with vile men high in place.
At the beginning, before the Fall, humanity was possessed of an accurate perception into reality. Adam was able to name the animals because he could perceive precisely what they were. His words expressed true insight, a contemplation of real forms, so that the very structure and composition of his mind took on the seal and assumed the formal stamp of truth. Human language then was a reflection of that divine light with which heaven and earth are full, rooted in the vision of truth. The Fall, when it came, derived from that demonic disassociation of speech from truth, that we call the Lie: “You will not surely die.” The acquiescence in that first lie was humanity’s original act of metaphysical rebellion. It was human language’s first declaration of independence (as verse 4 of our psalm): “With our tongues we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” Just as truthful speech streams forth from vision, springing from the fount of a pure heart, so lying is conceived in the duplicitous heart before it issues from the mouth (verse 2): “They speak falsehood to one another; with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.” In contrast to these varied, seemingly universal lies of men stands the reliable words of God: “The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, purified seven times.” In this very unveracious world we yet trust that, though heaven and earth pass away, His words will never pass away. (Reardon, p. 21-22)
“Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.” (vs. 5)
April 30: Psalm 78
Instruction and warning from remembering God’s past acts
Common meter double 86.86 D
This is a very long psalm, so you might want to use several tunes for different sections as you sing through it. The process of singing through the entire psalm is very powerful—be patient to do it! Possibilities of tunes are: Morning Song (p. 30), Langloffan (p. 69), Kingsfold (p. 60) for sections with a “minor” feel; Ellacombe (p.130) (Hosanna, Loud Hosanna), Forest Green (p. 70) (I Sing the Mighty Power of God) or even Materna (O Beautiful, for Spacious Skies) for a “major” feel.
O ye my people, to my law attentively give ear;
The words that from my mouth proceed incline yourselves to hear.
My mouth shall speak a parable, the sayings dark of old,
Which we have listened to and known as by our fathers told.
We will not hide them from their sons but tell the race to come
Jehovah’s praises and His strength, the wonders He has done.
His word He unto Jacob gave, His law to Is-ra-el,
And bade our fathers teach their sons the coming race to tell.
That children yet unborn might know and their descendants lead
To trust in God, recall God’s works, and His commandments heed,
And not be like their fathers were, a race of stubborn mood,
Which never would prepare its heart nor keep its faith with God.
The sons of E-phra-im were armed; for bows they did not lack;
But when the day of battle came, fainthearted they turned back.
They did not keep God’s covenant, nor walk in His commands.
His wonders shown them they forgot, the deeds done by His hands.
Great miracles He brought to pass before their fathers’ sight;
In Egypt’s land, in Zoan’s field He showed His wondrous might.
He split the sea to let them pass; the waters stood aside;
By day He led them with a cloud; all night a flame was guide.
He split the rocks and gave them drink, as from great deeps below;
He from the rock brought running streams, like floods made waters flow.
Yet in the desert still they sinned, provoking the most High;
For in their heart they tested God, urged Him their lust supply.
They spoke against their God; they said, “Can even God provide
A table in the wilderness that we may be supplied?
Behold, He struck the rock and out gushed streams of water sweet;
But can He give His people bread and send them flesh to eat?”
Because the Lord heard this, His wrath was kindled into flame;
On Jacob, and on Is-ra-el His indignation came.
For they did not believe in God nor trust His saving love;
But still He opened heaven’s doors, commanded clouds above,
And rained His manna down on them; He gave them grain from heav’n;
And man partook of angels’ food, in His abundance giv’n.
In heav’n He made the east wind blow; the south wind felt His hand;
So He rained meat on them like dust, winged fowl like ocean’s sand.
He let them fall amid their camp, by tents on every side.
And so they ate till they were filled; their greed He satisfied.
They craved still more, mouths filled with food; God’s wrath then on them fell
And killed their stout ones and subdued choice men of Is-ra-el.
Yet still they sinned, they disbelieved His wonders in the way;
So in a breath He closed their days, their years in deep dismay.
But when He killed them, they desired to seek Him eagerly;
So they returned and searched for God with sense of urgency.
They then remembered God to be their rock eternally,
And knew that only God Most High could their redeemer be.
But they enticed Him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied;
Their heart was not sincere toward Him; His cov’nant they denied.
But he forgave iniquity in mercy, did not slay,
Aroused not all His wrath, but oft His anger turned away.
Thus He remembered they were flesh, that they were only men,
A breath that swiftly goes away and never comes again.
How oft rebelled they in the wilds, grieved Him ‘neath desert sun!
They often tested God, brought pain on Isr’el’s Holy One.
For they remembered not His hand, nor kept in mind the day
When He in power redeemed from their adversary’s sway.
How He in Egypt wonders did and signs in Zoan’s field;
He turned their rivers into blood; their streams no drink would yield.
He sent de-vour-ing swarms of flies, and frogs their land to spoil;
To grasshoppers He gave their crops, to locusts all their toil.
He killed their tender vines with hail, their sycamores with frost;
He smote their flocks with thunderbolts; in hail their herds were lost.
His heat of anger, fury, woe, and indignation burned;
All these upon them He as His destroying angels turned.
He for His anger smoothed a path, spared not their soul from death;
But as a prey to pestilence He gave away their breath.
And over Egypt’s land He smote their firstborn sons, their pride,
Until in all the tents of Ham their chief of strength had died.
But His own people forth like sheep He brought with guiding hand,
And led His people like a flock across the desert land.
He led them safely, that no fear among them might be found,
But in the overwhelming sea their enemies were drowned.
He brought them through the boundary into His holy land,
This very mountain which He had possessed by His right hand.
Before them He drove nations out, gave them inheritance
By measured lot, caused Isr’el’s tribes to dwell within their tents.
And yet they tempted God Most High, rebelled against His will;
The testimonies He proclaimed they disregarded still.
They like their fathers backward turned in treachery and pride;
Like shafts from a deceitful bow they all did turn aside.
With their high places they to wrath provoked Him constantly;
And with their graven images aroused His jealousy.
God heard, and in His anger great rejected Isr’el then;
The tent at Shiloh He forsook where He had dwelt with men.
So He delivered up His strength into captivity,
His glory gave into the hand of His proud enemy.
And He His people to the sword delivered to be killed.
Against His own inheritance with anger He was filled.
Their young men were devoured by fire; their maidens were unwed;
And when their priests fell by the sword no tears their widows shed.
The Lord awoke as from a sleep, like warrior cheered by wine;
He drove His adversaries back, made their reproach a sign.
Then Joseph’s tent rejected He, on Ephraim would not count;
But He the tribe of Judah chose, for He loved Zion’s Mount.
And there exalted like the heights He built His sanctu’ry,
And like the earth He founded it for all eternity.
He for His servant David chose, took him from guarding sheep,
Brought him from where the ewes and lambs it was his task to keep.
That He might shepherd Jacob then and lead His people well,
Watch over His inheritance, His chosen Is-ra-el.
So with integrity of heart them faithfully he fed,
And with King David’s skillful hands He guided as he led.
O ye my people, to my law attentively give ear;
The words that from my mouth proceed incline yourselves to hear.
Just as the early Christians saw the Passover and other events associated with the Exodus of the Old Testament as types and foreshadowings of the salvation brought by Jesus, so they interpreted the forty years of the Israelites’ wandering in the desert as representing their own pilgrimage to the true Promised Land. Thus, the passage through the Red Sea became a symbol of Baptism, the miraculous manna was a foreshadowing of the Eucharist, and so forth. In particular did they regard the various temptations experienced by the Israelites in the desert as typical of the sorts of temptations to be faced by Christians. This deep Christian persuasion of the true significance of the desert pilgrimage serves to make the books of Exodus and Numbers necessary and very useful reading for serious Christians. Paul demonstrates this in 1 Cor. 10:1-13. For him, the entire story of the Israelites in the desert is a great moral lesson for Christians: “now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Another New Testament text illustrating this theme is even longer, filling chapters 3 and 4 of Hebrews. Here, as in 1 Corinthians, the story of the desert pilgrimage is remembered as a moral warning for those in Christ. Psalm 78, one of the longer psalms, is largely devoted to the same theme, which provides its proper interpretation. This psalm, which is a kind of poetic summary of the Books of Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and even some of Joshua, Judges and 1 Samuel, concentrates on the Chosen People’s constant infidelity and rebellion, but especially during the desert pilgrimage. Psalm 78 has long served as a sort of meditative compendium of the whole account. Its accent falls on exactly those same moral warnings that we saw in 1 Corinthians and Hebrews—the people’s failure to take heed to what they had already beheld of God’s deliverance and His sustained care for them. The story in this psalm is our own story. So we carefully ponder it and take warning. (Reardon, p. 153-154)
April 29: Psalm 97
The Lord God reigns over all
Common meter 86.86 St. Anne (O God, Our Help in Ages Past), p. 39
Jehovah reigns; let earth be glad; let isles their joy make known;
Dark clouds surround Him, righteousness and justice are His throne.
Fire goes before Him, and consumes all his foes round about;
His lightnings light up all the world; earth sees and shakes throughout.
Before the Lord the mountains melt as wax before a flame,
Before the Lord of all the earth as near His presence came.
The heav’ns declare His righteousness; all men His glory see.
All serving graven images confused and shamed shall be.
They who of idols boast are shamed; ye gods your worship bring.
When Zion hears this, she is glad, and Judah’s daughters sing,
Because of all Thy judgments, Lord. Thou art the Lord Most High
Above all earth, above all gods, exalted very high.
Hate evil, all who love the Lord; He keeps His saints secure,
And from the hand of wicked men He gives deliv’rance sure.
Upon the righteous light is sown, and true hearts gladness claim.
Ye righteous, in the Lord rejoice, and thank His holy name.
Psalm 97 is preoccupied with the presence of God in our midst: “Fire will go before Him…The mountains melted like wax from before the face of the Lord; from before the face of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declared His justice, and all peoples have seen His glory.” The threatening brightness of God’s presence puts one in mind of John’s inaugural vision of Christ at the beginning of Revelation. One will also be reminded of the bright cloud of the Lord’s Transfiguration on the mountain by a line of this psalm: “Clouds and darkness are round about Him.” God’s appearance in this world, says our psalm, is the source of joy for those who wait for Him in purity of life: “Hate evil, you who love the Lord, who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown like seed for the righteous, and gladness for those upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous ones, and give thanks to His holy name.” (Reardon, p. 191-192)
April 28: Psalm 76
The victorious power of God
87.87.87 CWM Rhonda (Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah/God of Grace and God of Glory)
God the Lord is known in Judah; great His name in Is-ra-el;
His pavilion is in Salem; His abode on Zion hill.
There He broke the bow and arrows, bade the sword and shield be still.
Bade the sword and shield be still.
You are glo-ri-ous with light, grander than the hills of prey.
Thou hast spoiled the valiant-hearted; wrapt in sleep of death are they.
Mighty men have lost their strength and none are ready for the fray.
None are ready for the fray.
Horse and char-iot low are lying in the sleep of death’s dark night.
Jacob’s God, Thou didst rebuke them; Thou art fearful in Thy might.
When Thine anger once is risen, who may stand before Thy sight?
Who may stand before Thy sight?
When from heav’n Thy judgment sounded, all the earth in fear was still,
While to save the meek and lowly God in judgment wrought His will
Your wrath over man brings praise and those remaining are kept still.
Those remaining are kept still.
Make your vows now to Jehovah; pay your God what is His own.
All lands, bring your gifts before Him; fear is due to Him alone;
He brings low the pride of princes; kings of earth fear Him alone.
Kings will tremble at His throne.
The concept of redemption as “battle” is found in Psalm 76. This majestic psalm evokes the memory of the defeat of Pharaoh’s army in order to describe how the Lord, with fire and fury, shook the earth and overthrew His foes: “You caused judgment to be heard from heaven; The earth feared, and was still, when God arose to judgment, to save all the humble of the earth… with a remnant of wrath Thou shall gird Thyself.” One rarely hears modern Christians speak of Christ’s redemptive work as an outpouring of the divine anger, but most assuredly it was. True combat always involves anger, and the redemptive deeds of Christ were the supreme and ultimate war ever waged in this world. Indeed, this truly was a war to end all warfare, for it graced human history with the key to its final peace. (Reardon, p. 149-150)
April 27: Psalm 141
O Lord, I have cried to you
Long meter double 88.88 D Sweet Hour of Prayer, p. 119
Before the Throne of God Above
O Lord, my God, to Thee I cry; swift to my aid in mercy fly;
And when to Thee my cries ascend, in pity to my voice attend.
As fragrant incense on the air, so mount to heav’n my early prayer;
And let my hands uplifted be, as evening sacrifice to Thee.
Set, Lord, a watch my mouth before, and of my lips keep Thou the door;
Nor leave my sinful heart to stray where evil footsteps lead the way.
Let me not of the feast partake which wicked men delight to make;
Let righteous ones in mercy smite, in their reproofs I’ll take delight.
Let righteous lips my errors chide, like healing oil the accents glide;
If voice of faithful friend reprove, such smiting comes to me in love.
For them, when they are in distress, to God I will my prayer address;
Their judges cast on rocky ground, then sweet to them my words shall sound.
Around the graves our bones are left, as branches by the woodman cleft.
To Thee, Lord God, I lift my eyes; on Thee my helpless soul relies.
Preserve me from the secret net, the toils which wicked hands have set;
In their own snares, let sinners fall, while I by grace escape them all.
“O Lord, I call upon Thee; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to Thee! May my prayer be counted as incense before Thee; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.” Whenever we Christians raise our hands in prayer, as St. Paul tells us to do (1 Timothy 2:8), it is to symbolize that our prayer, our entire relationship to God, is founded in the power of the cross. We are thereby proclaiming that we have no access to God except through the Cross of the Lord. St. Ambrose said, “What is it to lift up pure hands? Must you not, in your prayer, show to the nations the cross of the Lord?” The raising of our hands in prayer is acceptable to God only because of its relationship to that true evening sacrifice through which we draw near. (Reardon, p. 282)
April 26: Psalm 11
Trust in the Lord
Short meter double 66.86 D Terra Beata (This is My Father’s World), p. 10
Diademata (Crown Him with Many Crowns), p. 20
My trust is in the Lord; how can you say to me,
“Now like a bird from peril haste and to your mountain flee!
The wicked bend the bow with arrow fixed for flight,
And stealthily in darkness go the true in heart to smite.
“Foundations are destroyed! What can the righteous try?”
The Lord is in His holy place; the Lord’s throne is on high.
His eyes will surely see, His eyelids try men’s sons.
The Lord tries just and wicked men; His soul hates cruel ones.
Upon all wicked men He’ll rain entangling snares.
Brimstone and fire and burning wind He for their cup prepares.
For righteous is the Lord, and He loves righteousness;
And every one who upright is will see His gracious face.
One may safely argue that the most important line of Psalm 11, the sentence sustaining its message as a whole, is the one that says: “The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord’s throne is in heaven.” If there is any firmness for our lives, any steadfastness for our souls, the cause of such constancy is the immovable throne of Christ our God. A good place to start thinking about this psalm is the drama described in Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the flight of Lot. The similarities are striking. Similarly, when Jesus would tell us of the final and catastrophic times, it is to Sodom that He sends us (Luke 17:28-30). Living in the world where injustice thrives and the wicked flourish, daily our prayer rises to God with the sentiments of Psalm 11. (Reardon, p. 19-20)
April 25: Psalm 67
The nations exhorted to praise God
76.76 D Aurelia (The Church’s One Foundation), p. 120
May God, be gracious to us and bless us in His grace;
And make to shine upon us the brightness of His face;
So that Thy way most holy on earth may soon be known,
And unto ev’ry nation Your great salvation shown.
O God, let peoples praise Thee; let all the peoples sing;
Let nations now be joyful; let songs of gladness ring;
For Thou will rule the peoples with justice by Thy hand
And Thou will guide the nations in each and every land.
O God, let peoples praise Thee; let all the peoples sing;
For each in rich abundance to us her fruit will bring.
And God, our God, will bless us; yea, God will blessing send;
And all the earth shall fear Him to its remotest end.
For many centuries, among Western Christians, Psalm 67 was recited at the break of dawn each morning. Thus, just as the sunlight began to break through the darkness on the eastern horizon and to extend, bit by bit, its ever-ranging rays still further to lands in the distant west, the holy Church employed this psalm to summon all these myriad peoples to proclaim the praises of God. Twice during this psalm will come the double refrain: “May the peoples bless You, O Lord; may all the peoples bless You.” Just as God begins, at the opening of the day, to cause His sun to shine alike on both the just and the unjust, all the earth is invited to laud His mercy. (Reardon, p. 131)
April 24: Psalm 66
Shout for joy, all the earth
Common meter double 86.86 D Ellacombe (Hosanna, Loud Hosanna), p. 130
Forest Green (I Sing the Mighty Power of God), p. 70
All lands to God in joyful sounds aloft your voices raise;
Sing forth the honor of His name, And glorious make His praise,
Say unto God, How terrible in all Thy works art Thou!
Through Thy great power Thy foes to Thee shall be constrained to bow.
Yes, all the earth shall worship Thee, and unto Thee shall sing;
And to Thy name most glo-ri-ous their songs of praise shall bring,
O come, behold the works of God, His mighty doings see;
In dealing with the sons of men, most terrible is He.
He turned the sea into dry land, so they a pathway had;
They through the river went on foot; there we in Him were glad,
He ruleth ever by His might; His eyes the nations prove;
Let not the proud rebellions ones think they His strength can move.
O all ye people, bless our God; aloud proclaim His praise,
Who holdeth safe our soul in life, our feet from sliding ways,
For Thou, O God, hast tested us as silver is refined;
Didst take us in a net; on us a heavy load didst bind.
Thou madest men ride o’er our heads; through fire and flood we passed;
But Thou didst bring us out to share a bounteous place at last.
I’ll bring burnt off’rings to Thy house; to Thee my vows will pay,
As I gave promise with my lips when trouble on me lay.
Burnt sacrifice of fattened beasts with smoke of rams I’ll take,
And from the bullocks and the goats to Thee an off’ring make.
All ye that fear Him, come and hear what God did for my soul;
I with my mouth have cried to Him; my tongue did Him extol.
If in my heart I sin regard, the Lord will never hear;
But surely God has heard my voice; He to my prayer gave ear.
Forever bless-ed be our God; my prayer He has not spurned,
Nor has He ever yet from me His lovingkindness turned.
The reference to the drying up of the waters in Psalm 66 suggests that its original context was the celebration of the Passover and Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt, themes manifestly understood in the New Testament as types of the new Christian Pascha. The “works” of God being celebrated in this psalm, then, and for which we give thanks to His name, have to do with His accomplishing of our redemption in the paschal mystery, the death and Resurrection of Christ our Lord. This is a psalm about the passage from death to life, for the enemies of the human race are sin and death. It is from these that Christ has set us free, restoring us to eternal favor with God: “Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell of what He has done for my soul.” (Reardon, p. 129-130)
April 23: Psalm 146
Praise for creation, salvation and God’s final reign
The first of the final five “Hallelujah” psalms
87.87 double Ode to Joy (Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee), p. 159
Beecher (Love Divine, All Loves Excelling), p. 149
Austrian Hymn (Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken), p. 189
Hyfrydol (Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus), p. 169
Nettleton (Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing), p. 179
Hallelujah! Praise Jehovah! O my soul, Jehovah praise!
I will sing the glorious praises of my God through all my days.
Put no confidence in princes, nor for hope on man depend;
He shall die, to dust returning, and his purposes shall end.
Blessed is the man who chooses Jacob’s God to be his aid;
He is blessed whose hope of blessing on the Lord his God is stayed.
He has made the earth and heaven, Seas and all that they contain;
He will keep His truth forever, Rights of those oppressed maintain.
Food Jehovah gives the hungry, Sight Jehovah gives the blind;
Freedom gives He to the pris’ner, Those bowed down His mercy find.
For Jehovah loves the righteous; To the stranger is a stay;
Helps the fatherless and widow, But subverts the sinner’s way.
Over all God reigns forever, Through all ages He is King;
Unto Him, thy God, O Zion, Joyful hallelujahs sing.
I will sing the glorious praises of my God through all my days;
Hallelujah, praise Jehovah, Hallelujah, our God praise!
The list from Psalm 146 (of great messianic signs) is not unlike our Lord’s own description of His ministry in Matt. 11:5, and the signs prophesied in Isaiah 35:4-6 and 61:1 (which Jesus announced were being fulfilled in His own ministry in Luke 4:18-21). These miracles and wonders that marked the work of Jesus among humanity were at once the fulfillment of prophecy and signs of the divine presence. They are integral to the proclamation of the Gospel itself, and were not merely incidental to Jesus’ revelation and redemption. First, revelation. The miraculous healings and other signs done by Jesus are revelatory of the presence of God (Matt. 15:31). Second, redemption. The miraculous signs in the earthly life of Jesus, but most especially His healings, are directly related to the mystery of the divine atonement. All of the Lord’s various restorations were both the foreshadowing and the firstfruits of that definitive curing of the human race accomplished on the Cross. (Reardon, p. 291-292)
April 22: Psalm 96
Sing a new song to the Lord
86.86.86 Coronation (All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name)
(There is another tune, Diadem, often used for this hymn, which will not fit)
O sing a new song to the Lord; all earth sing to the Lord.
Sing to the Lord, and bless His name; “He saves!” each day proclaim.
His glory to all nations show; his deeds let peoples know.
The Lord is great. How great His praise! Above all gods He’s feared.
For heathen gods are idols vain; the Lord the heavens made.
Before Him beauty, majesty, and strength and splendor be!
O families of earth, ascribe all glory to the Lord!
All strength ascribe unto the Lord; the glory due His name
Give to the Lord. To His courts come and bring and offering.
In splendor of His holiness bring worship to the Lord.
All earth, before Him stand in awe; proclaim, “The Lord God reigns!”
For made by Him, the world stands firm; His judgments, just and true.
Let heav’ns be glad and earth rejoice, in vast expanse untold.
Let seas speak out with endless roar. Let fields and all they hold
Their glory give; let trees and woods with rustling boughs give praise.
Let all prepare to greet the Lord, because He coming is.
He surely comes to judge the earth, and righteousness is His.
He’ll nations judge with faithfulness, the world with justice bless.
We know that Psalm 96 was among the psalms chosen to be sung when the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the new tabernacle that David had constructed for it in Jerusalem (1 Chron. 16: 23-33). This piece of information is valuable because it sets Psalm 96 in at least one of its interpretive contexts in biblical history: God’s enthronement as King in the worship of His holy people. Inasmuch as the Lord’s symbolic enthronement “between the cherubim” in the Holy of Holies was one of the more important Old Testament institutions preparatory for His definitive presence in the human race by reason of the Incarnation, the deeper meaning of this psalm is likewise to be sought in its relationship to God’s Word that “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). This psalm, then, and all other Old Testament references to God as King are prophecies fulfilled in the Kingship of Jesus the Lord, who declared to the local representative of the Roman Empire, “You say rightly that I am a king” (John 18:37). Thus, our psalm commands, “Announce among the nations that the Lord is King.” (Reardon, p.189)
April 21: Psalm 52
The Righteous and the Wicked
Common meter double 86.86 D Kingsfold, p. 60
Promised Land, p. 79
St. Anne (O God, our Help in Ages Past), p. 39
Azmon (O, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing), p. 49
Why boast yourself, O mighty man, of evil and of wrong?
The lovingkindness of our God is present all day long.
You with your subtle tongue have planned destruction to complete.
Your tongue a sharpened razor is, a worker of deceit.
You cherish evil more than good and falsehood more than right.
You cherish all devouring words, in lies you take delight.
Forever God will put you down, will seize you with His hand,
Will tear you from your dwelling place, uproot you from the land.
The righteous will behold and fear, will laugh at him and say,
“Behold the man who would not make our God his strength and stay.
This is the man who placed his trust in wealth’s abundant store,
And in the evil he desired confirmed himself the more.”
But I within the house of God am like an olive tree,
And in the steadfast love of God my trust shall ever be.
Forever I will give Thee thanks, what Thou has done proclaim;
In presence of Thy godly ones I’ll wait on Thy good name.
Strikingly at odds with today’s popular bias against “demonizing the enemy,” this psalm presents a simple but stark contrast between good and evil, in which the “bad guy” really does appear quite bad. No wonder that the vicious man described in this psalm came to be identified with Doeg the Edomite, for the latter was arguably the worst, most unmistakably evil and reprobate man in all of Scripture. Doeg’s story is told in 1 Samuel 21 and 22. He slaughtered eighty-five innocent people in cold blood. The problem with Doeg is that he is not only bad, but he is so evil as to be uninteresting—an utterly one-dimensional character. There is no struggle or doubt or despair inside Doeg. So Psalm 51, pointing to Doeg, paints evil as completely evil. The dialectic involved here is important, for if evil is not really evil, then good is not really good. In the final Throne-room analysis, there is no chance of confusion, and no third option. Evil is portrayed in all its ugliness, so that good may be pictured in all its glory. And our psalm is much more interested in the goodness of the good man and in the assembly of God’s friends, who place their whole trust in the infinite goodness of the Lord. (Reardon, p. 101-102)
April 20: Psalm 26
Integrity, Holiness, and Mercy
Common meter 86.86 Morning Song, p. 30
Dundee, p. 40
St. Anne (O God, Our Help in Ages Past), p. 39
Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity,
And ever with unwav’ring heart have trusted, Lord, in Thee.
Examine me, and prove me, Lord; test heart and mind, I pray.
Thy mercy is before my eyes; thy truth has led my way.
I will not with deceitful go, with hypocrites will not wait.
I will not sit with wicked men; their company I hate.
I’ll wash my hands in innocence, approach Thine altar, Lord,
That with a thankful voice I may thy wonders all record.
The habitation of Thy house, O Lord, is my delight;
The place in which Thy glory dwells is lovely in my sight.
With sinners gather not my soul; spare me from blood they spill.
In their hand is a wicked scheme; their right hand bribes do fill.
But as for me, I’ll humbly walk in my integrity.
Redeem Thou me, and in Thy grace be merciful to me.
Because my foot is standing now upon a level place;
Within the congregation great Jehovah I will bless.
In the measure that the voice of this psalm is the voice of innocence, it is a psalm most properly heard from the lips of Christ our Lord, who alone is truly innocent. The deepest sense of Psalm 26 is Christological. Nonetheless, there is also a moral sense to this psalm, for we Christians too are called to live in some measure of innocence, in contrast to the world around us. In this context, Christian “blamelessness” is not an abstract or general ideal. We are more than merely ‘declared’ innocent. We are ‘made’ innocent. Christian blamelessness is not simply imputed; it is infused. Something actually happens to us; something real is effected in our souls. It truly makes us clean. The blood of Christ really washes us from our sins. But it is not of our doing. Even as we say to God (twice in this psalm), “I have walked in my innocence,” it is still necessary to add, “Redeem me and have mercy on me.” Innocence is not to be claimed except through repentance (1 John 1:9). It is from the altar of repentance that we are rendered innocent, purged by a coal so ardent that not even the fiery seraph dares to take it except with tongs. (Reardon, p. 49-50)
April 19: Psalm 46
God is the refuge of His people
88.88.66.668 Ein Feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress is our God)
God is our refuge and our strength, in our distress, a present aid;
Though all the earth should be removed, we will not therefore be afraid.
Though mountains great be hurled into the ocean’s depths,
Though seas may roar and foam, and billows shake the shore,
Though mountains tremble at their power.
A river brings refreshing streams to cheer the city of our God.
The Most High’s holy dwelling place; God is in her, she won’t be moved.
At dawn will God help her; though nations rage; realms quake;
He lifts His voice; earth melts; The Lord of Hosts is here!
Our fortress strong is Jacob’s God.
O come, see what the Lord has done: He desolations brought on earth.
On earth He puts an end to wars, breaks bow and spear, and chariots burns.
Be still! Know I am God! High over nations all;
Exalted o’er all earth. The Lord of Hosts with us!
Our fortress strong is Jacob’s God.
Luther’s battle-hymn, Ein feste Burg, took its starting-point from this psalm, catching its indomitable spirit but striking out in new directions. The psalm for its part proclaims the ascendancy of God in one sphere after another: His power over nature (1-3), over the attackers of His city (4-7), and over the whole warring world (8-11). ‘Refuge’ gives the defensive or external aspect of salvation: God the unchanging, in whom we find shelter. ‘Strength’ probably implies the dynamic aspect: God within, to empower the weak for action. Both are summarized in the words ‘a very present help in trouble,’ where the term ‘very present’ has implications of His readiness to be found. The injunction ‘Be still’ is not in the first place comfort for the harassed, but a rebuke to a restless and turbulent world: ‘Quiet!’— in fact, ‘Leave off!’ It resembles the command to another raging sea: ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the end in view is stated in terms not of man’s hopes, but of God’s glory. His firm intention ‘I will be exalted’ then arouses the comfort and confidence of the humble-—if such a God is ‘with us,’ and if one so exalted is ‘our stronghold.’ (Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72, An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, D.J. Wiseman, Ed., pages 175-176)
April 18: Psalm 29
God’s Glory and Sovereignty over all
11.11.11.11 Foundation (How Firm a Foundation)
St. Denio (Immortal, Invisible)
O, give to Jehovah, you sons of the Lord,
Both glory and strength to Jehovah accord!
O, give to the Lord His name’s greatness of might
In splendor of holiness, worship the Lord.
The voice of Jehovah resounds on the seas;
The glorious God thunders forth from the height.
The Lord is upon the great sweep of the sea,
The Lord’s voice in splendor! The Lord’s voice in might!
The voice of Jehovah is breaking the trees,
Jehovah rips Lebanon’s cedars apart!
The slopes of Mt. Hermon, like calves they do leap,
And Lebanon’s hills like the antelope start!
The voice of Jehovah brings fire in the sky,
And causes the lightning in flashes to break!
The voice of the Lord makes the wilderness whirl;
The Lord makes the desert of Kadesh to shake!
The voice of the Lord makes the deer bring forth life.
The highstanding forest of trees it strips bare!
The length and the breadth of His most holy place
And all things within it His glory declare!
The Lord on His throne sat above the great flood,
The Lord on His throne sits as King without cease!
The Lord gives His people His bountiful strength,
The Lord is the One who will bless them with peace!
This is a psalm about God’s glory and holiness. The expression “qol Adonai” (the voice of the Lord), found seven times in this psalm, conveys the impression of a repeated thunder roll with its glottal shock of the letter “q” in the Hebrew. In any language, this is most certainly a psalm to be prayed out loud, allowing its words to come rumbling through the soul…this is a very active piece of poetry. After calling on the people of God to bring Him glory and honor, the psalmist begins to describe that glory as it is revealed in the storm. Calling all God’s sons to “give glory to His name,” the psalmist immediately speaks of “the voice of the Lord upon the waters. The God of glory thunders.” This divine and thunderous voice is heard exactly seven times in the psalm, seven being the number of fullness and perfection. If most of this psalm is rather loud and active, however, its ending is decidedly peaceful, for it closes with God serene upon His throne, reigning eternally over His Church: “The Lord puts away the storm; the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people in peace.” (Reardon, p. 55-56)
“And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. And He (Jesus) was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And being aroused, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Hush, be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, ‘Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?’ And they became very much afraid and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’ (Mark 4: 37-41)
April 17: Psalm 48
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
Long meter 88.88 Duke Street (Jesus Shall Reign), p. 80
Truro (Lift up your Heads), p. 89
Old 100th (Doxology), p. 99
Tallis Canon (All Praise to Thee), p. 109
The Lord is great! Much to be praised, in our God’s city, of great worth;
His holy hill, most beautiful; Mount Zion, joy of all the earth!
She is the place where God resides, the city of the Mighty King.
God in her fortresses is known; a stronghold safe of which we sing.
For, lo, the kings their forces joined, advancing, marched with confidence,
But, seeing her, they were amazed; in terror their flight did commence.
For trembling seized its hold on them, pangs like a woman giving birth.
For You with east wind did destroy the Tarshish ships feared round the earth.
As we have heard, so we have seen, within the city of the Lord,
Within the city of our God: God keeps her safe for evermore.
O God, Your cov’nant love to us, we’ve thought on in Your temple’s courts.
O God, Your praise, just like Your name, extends to earth’s remotest shore.
Your right hand’s full of righteousness. O let Mount Zion now be glad;
Let Judah’s daughters all rejoice, for all Your judgments justly had.
Encircle Zion, walk about; her towers count, her ramparts see;
Go through her fortresses and tell descendents all who come to be.
The one true God, He is our God, and evermore He is the same;
Our God will guide us on through death; forever is His holy name.
It would be rather easy to read Psalm 48 as an expression of presumptuous confidence in Jerusalem’s invincibility, as the people of Israel had in Jeremiah’s day. They were persuaded that God would protect His holy city even if they did not repent. Micah, too, had warned them that unrepented sin inevitably invites the judgment of God, even on His chosen city (Micah 3:12).
In consequence of Israel’s sin, the city fell in 586 BC. But Jerusalem is vastly more than Jerusalem. Historically, it is the city of the Jews; allegorically, it is the Church of Christ. The confidence expressed in this psalm seems identical with that of the Apostle Paul: “If God is for us, who can be against us?…It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?…Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:31-35) Such sentiments express the consoling doctrine of the divine assurance, according to which no one can snatch our souls from the hand of Christ (John 10:28). This is a true and valid meaning of our psalm, I think, unless such confidence be understood in the same presumptuous sense condemned by the Prophets. The Church of God has indeed beheld the rise and fall of empires, and this psalm is perhaps best prayed as an expression of gratitude to God for this fixed and lasting institution of His grace in this world: “We have received Your mercy, O Lord, in the midst of Your Temple. As is Thy name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth.” (Reardon, p.93-94)
“I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18).
April 16: Psalm 25
A psalm of prayerful trust
Short meter 66.86 Terra Beata (This is My Father’s World), p. 10
St. Thomas (I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord), p. 19
St. Michael (Stand up and Bless the Lord)
To Thee I lift my soul, O Lord; I trust in Thee,
My God; let me not be ashamed nor foes exult o’er me.
Yea, none that wait on Thee shall be ashamed at all;
But those that willingly transgress, upon them shame shall fall.
Show me Thy ways, O Lord; Thy paths, O teach Thou me,
And do Thou lead me in Thy truth; therein my teacher be.
For Thou art God that dost to me salvation send,
And I upon Thee all the day expecting do attend.
Thy tender mercies, Lord, to mind do Thou recall,
And lovingkindnesses, for they have been through ages all.
My sins of youth, my faults, do Thou, O Lord, forget;
In lovingkindness think on me and for Thy goodness great.
The Lord is good and just; the way He’ll sinners show;
The meek in judgment He will guide and make His path to know.
All pathways of the Lord are truth and mercy sure,
To such as keep His covenant and testimonies pure.
Now for Thine own name’s sake, O Lord, I Thee entreat
To pardon my iniquity, for it is very great.
Who fears the Lord is taught the way to understand;
His soul shall ever dwell at ease, his seed possess the land.
The secret of the Lord shall all who fear Him know;
The knowledge of His covenant He unto them will show.
My eyes upon the Lord continually are set;
For He it is that shall bring forth my feet out of the net.
O turn to me Thy face; to me Thy mercy show;
For I am very desolate, and brought exceeding low.
My griefs of heart abound; my sore distress relieve.
See my affliction and my pain, and all my sins forgive.
Consider Thou my foes because they many are;
A cruel hatred, fierce it is, which they against me bear.
O do Thou keep my soul; do Thou deliver me;
And let me not be put to shame because I trust in Thee.
Because I wait for Thee let truth and right defend;
Redemption, Lord. to Is-ra-el from all his troubles send.
(Repeat the last half of the tune if using Terra Beata)
This is another acrostic psalm in the Hebrew. “To You, O Lord,” it says, “I lift up my soul; in You, my God, I put my trust.” Truly, the rest of this psalm, concerned entirely with prayerful trust, may be read simply as commentary on the first verse. Psalm 25 begins with such a “lifting up” of our inner being to God, and we commence our labor each day by raising our hearts and mind to God. If we want to “pray always,” as Holy Scripture tells us to do, it is important to raise our souls to God right away as we face the day’s labor. Otherwise, there is great likelihood that our occupations will involve us in endless distractions that blind us to the thought of God’s presence. If this is a good psalm with which to commence the activities of the day, nonetheless, it is also an excellent psalm with which to close them. In this respect, several lines of Psalm 25 beseech the mercy of God for those many sins and failings with which our conscience is invariably stricken as we look back over the previous activities of the day. Mindful of our numerous offenses, we pray at nightfall, “Remember Your compassion, O Lord, and Your mercy, for they are eternal…Guard my soul and deliver me.” Thus our psalm ends, “Redeem Israel, O God, from all his afflictions.” (Reardon, p. 47-48)
April 15: Psalm 95
O, come let us worship and bow down
Common meter Azmon (O, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing), p. 49
Ellacombe (Hosanna, Loud Hosanna), p. 130
try Morning Song for the final three stanzas, p. 30
O come and to Jehovah sing; let us our voices raise;
In joyful songs let us the Rock of our salvation praise.
Before His presence let us come with praise and thankful voice;
Let us sing psalms to Him with grace; with shouts let us rejoice.
The Lord’s a mighty God and King; above all gods He is.
The depths of earth are in His hand; the mountain peaks are His.
To Him the spacious sea belongs; ‘twas made by His command;
And by the working of His hands He formed the rising land.
O come and let us worship Him; let us with one accord
In presence of our Maker kneel, and bow before the Lord.
Because He only is our God, and we His chosen sheep,
The people of His pasturage, whom His own hand will keep.
Today if you will hear His voice, then harden not your heart;
Strive not as those at Meribah, nor Massah’s testing start.
Your fathers tried and tested Me, though they My work perceived;
And with that generation I for forty years was grieved.
I said, “They have a wand’ring heart, and they My ways detest.”
In wrath I swore they should not come into My promised rest.
Psalm 95 has for many centuries been used as one of the first psalms with which to begin the Christian day. It commences, after all, with an invitation to the praise of God: “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, the Rock of our salvation.” Because we belong to God in two ways, the psalm gives a double reason for our worship: creation and election. First, creation; the whole of created order belongs to God, and our worship is rooted in God’s sustained act of creation, by which we, and all things, have our being. Second, our special divine election; we Christians belong to God in a most particular way, for He has called and chosen us in Christ (“We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand”). This is a very consoling doctrine, of course, but our psalm also sees in it a component of danger—namely, the frightful possibility of failure in this matter of our “being in Christ,” should memory fade and heart be hardened. Since God has chosen us, we are summoned to choose God, and because our future turns largely on the freedom of our choice, it is by no means inevitable that we will, in the end, be faithful to the invitation of our destiny. Thus, there is an explicit and real warning in this psalm, a warning born of bitter historical memory (verses 8-11). Our psalm stands as a warning that all of us are capable of infidelity and hardness of heart—what happened in the desert to Israel of old can also happen “today.” The day of decision is always “today.” This is the point of the earliest Christian interpretation of this psalm, found in chapters 3 and 4 of Hebrews, a work addressed to a Christian congregation which, the author feared, was in serious danger of falling away from the faith. These lines of our psalm were quoted, along with a severe warning comment (Hebrews 3:7-13; 4:1-3). The psalm’s warning, then, is always a matter of “today,” as we begin our daily worship. (Reardon, p. 187-188)
April 14: Psalm 84
Blest to be in the Lord’s presence
76.76 D Aurelia (The Church’s One Foundation), p. 120
O Lord of hosts, how lovely the place where Thou dost dwell.
The tabernacles holy in pleasantness excel.
My soul is longing, fainting, Jehovah’s courts to see;
My heart and flesh are crying, O living God, for Thee.
Behold the sparrow findeth a house in which to rest,
The swallow has discovered where she may build her nest;
And where, securely sheltered, her young she forth may bring;
So Lord of hosts, Thy altars I seek, my God, my King.
Blest who Thy house inhabit, they ever give Thee praise;
Blest all whom Thou dost strengthen, who walk in pilgrim ways,
Who pass through Baca’s valley, make it a place of springs,
The pools are filled with water which autumn rain then brings!
So they from strength unwearied go forward unto strength,
Till they appear in Zion, before the Lord at length.
O hear, Lord God of Jacob, to me an answer yield;
Look well on Thy anointed, behold, O God, our Shield.
One day excels a thousand, if spent Thy courts within;
I’ll choose a threshold rather than dwell in tents of sin.
The Lord our sun and shield is, who grace and honor gives;
No good will He deny them that blamelessly do live.
O God of hosts, Jehovah, how blest is every one
Who confidence reposes on Thee, O Lord, alone.
O Lord of hosts, how lovely the place where thou dost dwell.
Thy tabernacles holy in pleasantness excel.
The image of Jesus as God’s true temple, which provides the proper Christological key to Psalm 84, is indicated in the Gospel of John. Fairly early in that Gospel, when Jesus speaks of the destruction of the temple, the evangelists notes: “But He was speaking of the temple of His body” (John 2:21). This body of Christ, in the Johannine context, is His resurrected flesh and blood, the permanent and even physical abiding place of God’s presence. John will say of heaven: “But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev. 21:22). Jesus is the one place where we meet God, and we too abide in Jesus, being united to God in Him. Such is the proper Christological context for our praying of Psalm 84. When we say to God, “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; for ever and ever will they praise You,” we are referring to the worship offered to the Father by those who abide in Christ, both on earth and in heaven. (Reardon, p. 165-166)
April 13: Psalm 135
Praise the Lord’s wonderful works
87.87 D Nettleton (Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing), p. 179
Ode to Joy (Joyful, Joyful), p. 159
Beecher (Love Divine, All Loves Excelling), p. 149
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord’s name! Praise Him, servants of the Lord.
You that in the Lord’s house serve Him, in God’s courtyard standing guard.
Praise the Lord! How good the Lord is! Sing His name—how sweet its tone!
For the Lord has chosen Jacob, Israel to be his own.
Well I know how great the Lord is; our Lord is above all gods.
For the Lord does what He pleases in all heav’n, earth, deeps and floods.
He it is who makes the clouds rise from the ends of earth and sea,
Who with lightning brings the rain down, from His store the wind sets free;
Who slew all of Egypt’s firstborn, on you, Egypt, wonders sent.
Signs to Pharaoh and his servants, Who killed kings, their kingdoms rent –
Mighty Sihon, Og of Bashan, then the Kings of Canaan fell!
God their land gave to His people, willed it all to Israel.
Your name, Lord, endures forever; Your fame, Lord, each age has known;
For the Lord acquits His people, has compassion on his own.
Heathen idols, gold and silver, work of human artistry:
Having mouths, they speak of nothing; having eyes, they do not see.
Having ears, they never hearken; they do not breathe out or in.
Those who make them will be like them, all whose trust in them has been.
Bless the Lord, O house of Isr’el! House of Aaron, bless the Lord!
Bless the Lord, O house of Levi! All who fear Him, bless the Lord!
Blessings to the Lord you worship! Blessed from Zion be the Lord,
He who dwells within Jerus’lem! Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Bless the Lord, O house of Isr’el! House of Aaron, bless the Lord!
Bless the Lord, O house of Levi! All who fear Him, bless the Lord!
In the New Testament, God’s redemptive interventions in the history of ancient Israel are viewed as prophetic foreshadowings of our true salvation in Christ. Thus, the Lord’s election of Israel is the foreshadowing and firstfruits of the Church. That is to say, Israel herself was “chosen” as God’s people only in view of Christ, who is the theological root of our own election (Rom. 9:10-13; 11:5-6; 2 Peter 1:10). Thus, it is of our own election in Christ that we sing in Psalm 135. This election of the Church is not an afterthought in salvation history. It is what God had in mind, rather from the very beginning of His choices. Abraham, Isaac, David, whoever was chosen, was chosen for the sake of Christ, and we ourselves are chosen in Christ. As in Psalm 135, this awareness of God’s choice from the beginning of biblical history is the font and motive of that very thanksgiving that identifies the Church (2 Thess. 2:13-14). What was true of ancient Israel’s election by God is likewise true of His other interventions on Israel’s behalf; they were all foreshadowings of His salvific deeds in Christ in these final times. Thus, Israel’s redemption from Egypt, explicitly commemorated in our psalm, was the foreshadowing of His overthrow of the demonic pharaoh to whom the human race, without Christ, is held in the vilest bondage. Likewise, the God-given conquest of the Promised Land by the Chosen People, along with the defeat of the various threatening nations, was the prefiguration of our entrance into the realm of eternal life through the vanquishing of the many spiritual enemies who impede our path. (Reardon, p. 269-270)
April 12: Psalm 73
Proper perspective on the wicked
Long Meter double 88.88 D In Christ Alone
Before the Throne of God Above
God’s surely good to Israel, to every one whose heart is pure.
But as for me, I nearly fell; My footsteps were no longer sure.
For I was envious of the proud, and wicked ones with wealth endowed;
For in their death no pangs they know; Their strength is firm from day to day;
(Repeat last phrase of tune) They have no part in others’ woe,
Nor plagued as mortal men are they.
They make their necklace arrogance, and clothe themselves with violence.
Their hearts o’erflow with wickedness; their minds with evil plans they seek.
They scoff; they threaten to oppress; disdainful words they proudly speak.
Their mouth the heights of heaven raids; their tongue around the world parades.
Their people therefore this way turn, and drink their streams that overflow.
“For how,” they say, “can God discern? And does the Most High really know?”
Behold, ungodly men are these, who gain in wealth and live at ease.
Then surely I have toiled in vain to cleanse my heart from all offense.
(Repeat last phrase of tune) And vainly from each guilty stain, have washed my hands in innocence.
Still grievous plagues all day I’ve borne, and have been chastened every morn.
If I would let my thoughts lead me to speak with doubting words this way,
Behold, the children called by Thee, I certainly would then betray.
But though the facts I tried to see, the problem deeply troubled me.
Then came I to God’s sanctuary, and there considered well their end.
They’re set on slipp’ry ground by Thee, and them to ruin Thou does send.
How rapidly destroyed are they, by sudden terrors swept away!
As one who from a dream awakes, their form, O Lord, You will despise.
So when my heart with grieving breaks, and bitter thoughts within me rise,
I senseless am, and blind within; a beast before Thee I have been.
Yet evermore I am with Thee: Thou holdest me by my right hand.
And Thou, ev’n Thou, my guide shall be; Thy counsel shall my way command.
And afterward in glory bright, Thou shall receive me to Thy sight.
For whom have I in heav’n but Thee? None else on earth I long to know.
My flesh may faint and weary be; my heart may fail and heavy grow;
With strength does God my heart restore; He is my portion evermore.
They perish that are far from Thee; in their unfaithfulness they die.
But surely it is good for me that unto God I should draw nigh.
I’ve taken refuge in His Name, that all Thy works I may proclaim.
With strength does God my heart restore; He is my portion evermore.
Psalm 73 is concerned with much the same moral dilemma as Job and Habakkuk —“If God is just and on the side of justice, and if also God is almighty, why do wickedness and injustice seem to prevail?” Already in this, its most elementary moral presupposition-—its basic sentiment of hope, expecting goodness and justice to prevail over evil and injustice—Psalm 73 stands radically at odds with much of our present popular philosophy. Indeed, one of the more characteristic features of the modern world is its growing inability to presume that the moral order, including the social order, is rooted in the metaphysical order. Relatively few people in today’s culture seem any longer able to presuppose that they live in a moral universe where the differences between right and wrong, justice and injustice, are fixed in the composition of reality. In a world whose only presumed rule is the survival of the fittest, why would anyone anticipate that justice and goodness would prevail? For Psalm 73, however, since it presupposes the identification of the world’s Creator with the Author of the moral law, the prevalence of evil in the world is the stuff of a crisis. Even as the psalm begins, the crisis has already been worked through, so to speak, and the prayer simply reviews the reflective process that brought about its resolution. The believer reflects on the judgments of God, who knows how to deal with the unjust, and will, at the last, do so. Finally, the believer commits his own destiny to God, who will never abandon him, ever be with him, and at the end, receive him into glory. (Reardon, p. 143-144)
April 11: Psalm 18
Praise for deliverance
Long Meter double 88.88 D Guidance (He Leadeth Me), p. 110
Before the Throne of God Above
Sweet Hour (Sweet Hour of Prayer), p. 119
I love You, Lord! You are my strength, the Lord, my rock, my fort, my power,
My God, my hiding place, my shield, my horn of safety, and my tower.
Because He’s ever to be praised, unto the Lord I lift my cry;
For I shall be delivered thus from all the foes who me defy.
With cords of death on every side, I was assailed by floods of sin,
Entangled by the grave’s strong cords, my way with snares of death hemmed in.
In my distress I called the Lord; my cry to God for help was clear.
He from His temple heard my voice; my cry before Him reached His ear.
The earth then quivered to its depths; the mountains rocked with trembling frame;
The whole world’s firm foundations shook, because He in His anger came.
His nostrils smoked; His mouth belched fire; and glowing coals flamed forth from Him.
He bent the sky as He came down; thick darkness hovered under Him.
He swiftly on a cherub flew; on wings of wind He rushed in flight.
He hid Himself in darkness deep, thick clouds about Him black as night.
Then through the clouds His brilliance burst with lightnings, hailstones, coals of fire.
The Lord Most High then thundered forth; he spoke with hailstones, coals of fire.
The deadly arrows He sent forth dispersed His foes in wild retreat.
The flaming lightnings He shot out made their discomfiture complete.
Then channels of the seas were seen, laid bare the world’s foundations vast;
At Your rebuke, O Lord, they shook, and at Your nostrils’ angry blast.
He reached from heav’n and rescued me from many waters swelling high;
From those that hate me set me free, from foes that stronger were than I.
In my distress my foes came on; The Lord was my security;
He brought me forth and gave me room, because He took delight in me.
According to my righteousness I am rewarded by the Lord;
According as my hands were clean, He gives to me a just reward.
I’ve kept the pathway of the Lord and from my God did not depart,
I’ve kept His judgments in my sight, His statutes shut not from my heart.
Sincere toward Him, I set my guard to keep myself away from sin.
My righteousness the Lord rewards as in His sight my hands are clean.
To gracious men You gracious are; the perfect You perfection show;
The pure You show that You are pure; Your cunning will the crafty know.
A humble people You lift up; but haughty eyes you humble low.
You light my lamp and make it shine. The Lord my God makes darkness glow.
By You I can attack a troop. And by my God I leap a wall.
Our God! How perfect is His way! No promise of the Lord can fall.
He is a shield around all those who flee to Him from foes abroad.
For who is God, except the Lord? Who is a rock, except our God?
My God girds up my loins with strength; my way He perfects with His hand.
He makes my feet swift like the doe’s; on heights triumphant makes me stand.
My arms can bend a bow of grass; hands trained by Him for battle wait.
Your gift, my shield! Your hand, my help! Your gentleness has made me great.
You for my steps have cleared the way; my feet slide not while I pursue;
I overtake my fleeing foes; I turn not till I thrust them through.
My foes can rise again no more; they at my feet are fallen now.
For You have made me strong for war; You’ve made my foes beneath me bow.
You made them turn their backs and flee, that I my haters might destroy.
They cried for help, but no one came; They begged the Lord; He sent no joy.
I crushed them small as flying dust; like trampled mud I let them fall.
You rescued me from peoples’ strife, made me the head of nations all.
A people I knew not will serve and, when they hear me, will obey.
The sons of strangers, trembling come and from their strongholds fade away.
Jehovah lives! Blessed be my Rock! The God Who saves exalted be!
The God Who vengeance executes, and humbles nations under me.
He saves me from my enemies; Yes, You will now exalt me far
Above the men of violence who risen up against me are.
I therefore will give thanks to You among the nations all, O Lord;
And I will sing the psalms of praise, to Your great name will praise accord.
He to His king salvation gives, to His anointed shows His grace;
His mercy evermore extends to David and his promised race.
Second Samuel 22 gives a nearly identical version of Psalm 18, similarly providing the historical context of David’s deliverance from the unjust persecution of Saul. Many Christians have seen fit, over the centuries, to pray psalm 18 in the context of the suffering and trial of Christ before Pontius Pilate. Indeed, certain lines of the psalm lend themselves readily to such a reading. Jesus was subjected to trial under the two greatest legal codes of that day, those of Israel and Rome, and in neither could His innocence find vindication. Within the finest forensic systems of humanity then devised, the most just man in history could obtain no justice. Psalm 18 fits congruously into that dramatic context. Many lines of Psalm 18, however, lay greater stress on the rich blessings of the Lord’s triumph over evil. For example, the calling of the Gentiles to salvation. Rejected by the Jews at His trial, Jesus [through David in this psalm] speaks of the other nations: “You have delivered me from the contentions of the people; You have placed me as head of the nations; A people whom I have not known serve me…Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Lord, and praise will I sing to Your name” (verses 43,49). Later the Apostle Paul will quote this verse from Psalm 18 by way of explaining his thesis that “the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy” (Rom. 15:9). (Reardon, p. 33-34)
April 10: Psalm 2
Vindication of the Lord’s Messiah
77.77 D Spanish Hymn (Come, Christians, Join to Sing/How I Love Thy Law, O Lord) Aberystwyth (Jesus, Lover of My Soul), p. 189
Why do heathen nations rage? Why do people folly mind?
Kings of earth in plots engage, rulers are in league combined;
Then against Jehovah high, and against Messiah’s sway,
“Let us break their bands,” they cry, “Let us cast their cords away.”
But the Lord will scorn them all; He will laugh Who sits on high,
Then His wrath will on them fall, terribly then He’ll reply:
“Yet according to My will I have set My King to reign,
And on Zion’s holy hill My Anointed I’ll maintain.”
His decree I will make known: unto Me the Lord did say,
“Thou art My be-lov-ed Son; I’ve begotten Thee this day.
Ask of Me, and Thee I’ll make Heir to earth and nations all;
Them with iron Thou shalt break, dashing them in pieces small.”
Therefore, kings, be wise, give ear; hearken, judges of the earth;
Serve the Lord with godly fear; mingle trembling with your mirth.
Kiss the Son, His wrath to turn, lest ye perish in the way,
For His anger soon will burn. Blessed are all that on Him stay.
Psalm 2 begins: “Why do the nations rage, and the people devise a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed.” The early Christians knew the meaning of these words, and they included them in one of their earliest recorded prayers (Acts 4:24-27). The context of this prayer was the persecution of the Church by the authorities at Jerusalem. That is to say, the psalm’s meaning, to those Christians, was not something in the distant past; it was something contemporary to ongoing Christian history. Psalm 2 is about messianic conflict; it is a Christological interpretation of history. The Messiah proclaims: “The Lord said unto Me: ‘You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.’” These words, partly reflected at the Lord’s Baptism (Matt. 3:17) and Transfiguration (Matt. 17:5 and 2 Peter 1:17), came to express the essential Christological faith of the Church. This verse is cited explicitly in the apostolic preaching (Acts 13:33) and directly answers the major question posed by Christian evangelism in every age: “What do you think of the Christ? Whose Son is He?”
“This day,” God says, “today have I begotten You.” So, early in the Book of Psalms is the Christian mind elevated to eternity, that undiminished “today” of Christ’s identity – Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Therefore, we sing with the psalmist, “Be wise now, you kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth; worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling; Do homage to the Son…Blessed are all that put their trust in Him!”(Reardon, p. 3-4)
April 9: Psalm 118
This is the Lord’s doing, and wondrous in our eyes
Common meter double 86.86 D Ellacombe (Hosanna, Loud Hosanna), p. 130
Forest Green (I Sing the Mighty Power of God), p. 70
O praise the Lord, for He is good; His steadfast love endures.
O let all Is-ra-el now say, “His steadfast love endures.”
O let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures.”
Let those that fear the Lord now say, “His steadfast love endures.”
In my distress I sought the Lord; Jehovah answered me;
He set me in a spacious place, a place of liberty.
The mighty Lord is on my side; I will not be afraid;
For anything that man can do I will not be dismayed.
The Lord is on my side with those who render help to me.
And so I look with triumph sure upon my enemy.
O better far to trust the Lord than rest in aid of men.
Yes, better far to trust the Lord than rest in noblemen.
All nations have surrounded me; their forces they deploy;
But surely in Jehovah’s name I will them all destroy.
Yes, they have all surrounded me, to take away my joy,
But surely in Jehovah’s name I will them all destroy.
Though they surrounded me like bees, like thorn fires soon they die,
For surely in Jehovah’s name destroy them all will I.
Hard pressed, I was about to fall; the Lord gave help to me.
Jehovah is my strength and song and my salvation He.
Salvation’s song and shouts of joy resound where righteous dwell:
“The right hand of the mighty Lord has done great things for us!”
The right hand of the mighty Lord on high exalted is.
The right hand of the mighty Lord in valiant deeds excels.
I shall not die, but live and tell Jehovah’s power to save;
The Lord has sorely chastened me, but spared me from the grave.
O set ye open unto me the gates of righteousness;
Then will I enter into them and I the Lord will bless.
This is Jehovah’s gate; by it the just shall enter in.
I’ll praise Thee Who hast heard my prayer, and hast my safety been.
That stone is made head cornerstone which builders did despise.
This is the doing of the Lord, and wondrous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and sing.
Hosanna, Lord! O give success! O Lord, salvation bring.
O bless-ed be the one who comes, comes in Jehovah’s name;
The blessing from Jehovah’s house upon you we proclaim.
The Lord is God, and He to us has made the light arise;
O bind ye to the altar’s horns with cords the sacrifice.
Thou art my God; I’ll give Thee thanks. My God, I’ll worship Thee.
O thank the Lord, for He is good; His love will endless be.
We Christians have every right to find in psalm 118 the expression of our paschal joy. Whence did we Christians derive the idea that Psalm 118 is a psalm about Christ? From a very good source, actually—Christ Himself. Our Lord quoted a line of this psalm to His enemies by way of interpreting His parable of the wicked vinedressers: “Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Mark 12:10-11) Using a play on words, Jesus here identifies Himself as both the Son and the Stone of His story about the drama of His death and divine vindication. It is in the Resurrection that we perceive that the “stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Psalm 118 is the canticle of the empty tomb. It is to the risen Jesus that we sing: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord…You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, and I will exalt You.” Truly, in the Resurrection we see clearly that “The Lord is God, and He has given us light.” (Reardon, p. 235-236)
April 8: Psalm 16
You did not allow Your Holy One to see Decay
Easter
Short meter double 66.86 D Diademata (Crown Him with Many Crowns), p. 20
Preserve me, O my God; I put my trust in You.
Lord, I confess, You are my Lord; no good have I but You.
The godly ones on earth, those holy in Your sight,
The noble and majestic ones, fill me with great delight.
Their sorrows multiply who after idols seek.
To them I’ll no blood off’rings make; their names I’ll never speak.
The Lord the portion is of my inheritance.
He fills my cup, my lot prepares, secures to me his grants.
The lines that fell to me enclose a pleasant site.
The heritage that I received to me is a delight.
I bless the Lord Who guides with counsel that is right.
My heart within me He directs to teach me in the night.
I always keep the Lord before me, Him to see.
Because He is at my right hand I never moved shall be.
Thus gladness fills my soul; my joy must be expressed
With my whole being, for my flesh securely finds its rest.
My soul You will not leave in death’s dark pit to be.
Corruption You will not permit Your Holy One to see.
The path of life You’ll show; of joy You hold great store.
Before Your face, at Your right hand, are pleasures evermore.
We may be sure that Psalm 16 was among the psalms interpreted to the Church by the risen Christ, for this was the first psalm that she exegeted in her very first sermon when she came rushing with power from the upper room on Pentecost. According to the Apostle Peter, who preached that sermon, Psalm 16 describes the Resurrection of Christ (Acts 2: 22-28). Even though it was King David saying these things, the voice speaking more deeply in Psalm 16, according to Peter, is the voice of Christ. As the forefather and type of Christ, David was speaking in the tones of prophecy (Acts 2: 29-32). As David prayed Psalm 16 ‘in persona Christi’, looking forward to the one who was to come, so do Christians, when they pray this psalm, identify themselves in hope with the risen Christ, for we too will rise with Him: “He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:14); “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies” (Rom. 8:11). (Reardon, p.29-30)
April 7: Psalm 88
Personal cry of distress
Holy Saturday
10.10.10.10 Penitentia (Here, O My Lord, I see Thee Face to Face), p. 199
Morecambe (Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart), p. 190
O Lord, the God of my salvation tried,
All day and night before Thee I have cried.
O let my prayer before Thy presence rise;
Incline Thine ear to hear my pleading cries.
My soul is full of anxious cares and gloom;
My weary life drawn nigh the silent tomb.
I am as those that to the pit descend;
I’m like the man whose strength is at an end.
As one cast off among the dead am I;
I’m like the pierced ones in the grave that lie,
Whom Thou hast not remembered any more,
Those cut off from Thy hand where none restore.
By Thee within the lowest pit I’m laid,
In deeps and in the place of darkest shade;
Thy furious wrath on me has come to rest,
Thy waves have o’er me swept and me oppressed.
My former friends Thou hast estranged from me;
Yes, their abhorrence I am made by Thee;
Shut up am I, imprisoned here must stay;
Through deep distress my eyes both waste away.
O Lord, I’ve daily called upon Thy name.
Spread forth my hands Thy gracious help to claim.
Wilt Thou Thy wonders make the dead to know?
And shall the dead arise Thy praise to show?
Shall Thy great love be in the grave extolled?
Or shall Thy truth be in destruction told?
In darkness who Thy wonders will confess,
Where mem’ries fade make known Thy righteousness?
But unto Thee, Jehovah, I have cried;
My prayer shall rise to Thee with morningtide.
O Lord, why dost Thou cast my soul from Thee?
Why dost Thou hide Thy gracious face from me?
From youth I am distressed, about to die;
Thy terrors I have borne; distraught was I.
Thy burning anger over me has passed;
Thy terrors all have cut me off at last.
All day like billows they around me surge;
Together closing in they me submerge.
Thou has put far from me each lover, friend,
And my acquaintances in darkness end.
Psalm 88 is possibly the most difficult of the psalms. In any case, it is arguably the darkest. Psalm 88 is not only darksome in its every line; almost alone among the psalms, it even ends on a dark note. Its final line says: “My friend and lover You have kept afar from me; and my neighbors, because of my distress.” But then, on closer inspection, we may observe certain subtler features softening this impression of our psalm. For all its gloom and shadow, for example, is it without significance that Psalm 88 begins by thus addressing the Almighty: “O Lord, the God of my salvation”? The intimacy and quiet hope of this address put one in mind of Psalm 22, in which the crucified Jesus, asking why God has forsaken Him, nonetheless continues to call Him “my God, my God.” Finally, the fear of death expressed in this psalm is certainly a fear that Jesus felt. If death is but the outward expression of sin and our alienation from God, then a deeper understanding of sin must surely imply a more profound understanding of death. And who understood sin more than Jesus? Likewise was His perception of death vastly more ample and accurate than our own. And, as He knew more about the power of death than any of the rest of us, there is every reason to believe that He felt this fear of death more intensely than the rest of us possibly could. (Reardon, p. 173-174)
The isolation and fear of depression, forsakenness, and death is assuaged by singing of this common experience with other saints of God. Thus, this personal cry of distress, which Jesus Himself experienced as we do, is enshrined in the Psalter as a corporate song of worship for the church, which in itself is restorative and instructive as we walk through the valleys of this life.