Wednesday, November 2, 2022  

Today’s Scripture Reading
Psalm 149

Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful.

Let Israel be glad in its Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.

Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.

For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with victory.

Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches.

Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands,

to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,

to bind their kings with fetters and their nobles with chains of iron,

to execute on them the judgment decreed. This is glory for all his faithful ones. Praise the Lord! (NRSV)

Reflection

I don’t know about you, but I was on board with the intoxicating joy of roughly two-thirds of this psalm until we reached the “two-edged swords” portion. It certainly took a grim turn! Up to that point, I had allowed my imagination to transport me to the temple, surrounded by the swelling of voices, enchanted by the notion of wrapping my voice around a “new song.” No tears but for those of joy; no shame, for God takes pleasure in me, in us. Pure, unadulterated praise, relief, and release.

At once, I felt connected to both the imaginative project of praising God among the ancients and vivid memories of times in my life when I’ve felt the most exhilaration, be it as a young college student swept away by the pulsating rhythms of the dance floor or as a pastoral chaperone of a small cohort of high schoolers following the footsteps of the Apostle Paul along the Aegean Sea. Flights of fancy! None of which required the supplemental satisfaction of the comeuppance of enemies in order to make the joy feel, somehow, complete.

Suffice it to say, what the psalmist captured held a lot more at stake than personal moments of joy or elation. The hopes and dreams of a nation to achieve liberation from their captors and oppressors filled their beating hearts with a sense of purpose that could only be described as, and attributed to, the Divine. God did not neglect Israel, and therefore, Israel remembered God through its jubilation. The specificity of this covenant relationship—the people, the place, the circumstances—is to be respected by us who encounter these tonal shifts in such ancient texts while, at the same time, we are invited to allow our own experiences of prayerful delight at God’s work in our midst to mirror that of our spiritual ancestors.

Prayer

May we be faithful to you, O Holy One, in expressing our wholehearted joy and thanksgiving for shaping us into your beloved community, and may we never lose our sense of awe at your grace. Amen.

Written by Nancy Benson-Nicol, Associate Pastor for Caring Ministries and Spiritual Formation

Reflection and prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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