LECTIO DIVINA Psalm 145 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A Fr. Michael Brizio, IMC www.frmichaelbrizio.com Free email newsletter: click here

1) OPENING PRAYER:

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations.

Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

2) READING OF THE WORD (What the Word says): Psalm 145

1 Praise. I will extol you, my God and king; I will bless your name forever and ever.

2 Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever and ever.

3 Great is the LORD and worthy of much praise, whose grandeur is beyond understanding.

4 One generation praises your deeds to the next and proclaims your mighty works.

5 They speak of the splendor of your majestic glory, tell of your wonderful deeds.

6 They speak of the power of your awesome acts and recount your great deeds.

7 They celebrate your abounding goodness and joyfully sing of your justice. 8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy.

9 The LORD is good to all, compassionate toward all your works.

10 All your works give you thanks, LORD, and your faithful bless you.

11 They speak of the glory of your reign and tell of your mighty works,

12 Making known to the sons of men your mighty acts, the majestic glory of your rule.

13 Your reign is a reign for all ages, your dominion for all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in all his words, and loving in all his works.

14 The LORD supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

15 The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them their food in due season.

16 You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17 The LORD is just in all his ways, merciful in all his works.

18 The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.

19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.

20 The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he destroys.

21 My mouth will speak the praises of the LORD; all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

3) EXPLANATION (What the Word means):

Composition and Context

This is the only psalm that is called “Praise.”

It is also the last psalm in the that is attributed to David; and it is the last of the eight alphabetic () , five of which are Davidic.

Here the acrostic arrangement in the is incomplete; a verse beginning with an “n” is not in the text. However, there is a verse in one Hebrew manuscript, the Qumran scroll and the Greek and Syriac versions; most versions, therefore, restore it for the full acrostic order.

In addition to these features, the psalm is also a unique type of hymn, occasionally referred to as an imperatival hymn because it prefaces the descriptions of God’s greatness and grace with calls to praise.

Even these calls to praise form indirect praises as they reflect on the greatness of the Lord as the subject matter for the praise.

And that greatness describes the kingdom of the Lord, not only for its unsearchable greatness and majesty, but also for its uniqueness in the ancient world of kingdoms in that the Lord condescends to meet the needs of all his creation, but especially those with whom he has a covenant.

Most commentators place the psalm in the post-exilic period because the language seems to be late.

The message is a timeless one and came to be repeated by devout Jews in their morning and evening prayer services.

Moreover, the has the saying that those who repeat it three times have a share in the world to come (b. Ber: 4b).

The Psalm has two main parts, the first praising God for his kingdom (vv.1-9), and the second praising him for his care for his creation (vv.10-21).

v.1: Praise. I will extol you, my God and king; I will bless your name forever and ever.

The psalmist, probably speaking on behalf of the congregation, resolves to exalt and praise his “God and King.”

These two words alone would call for praise.

Here he will “extol” God (Psalm 46:10) and “bless him” (:12).

v.2: Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever and ever.

Because the psalmist will praise the everlasting God and King his praise will necessarily be unending—he will praise the name of the LORD for ever and ever.

All believers know that praise must not cease and will never cease.

The psalmist may not have meant that his praise would extend into the life to come.

v.3a: Great is the LORD and worthy of much praise,

The psalmist provides the opening reason for praising the Lord—He is great (:3) and greatly to be praised (meaning that because he is completely praiseworthy, he is given great praise).

v.3b: whose grandeur is beyond understanding.

The psalm will probe the greatness of the Lord; but at this point it reminds people that no one can fully discover (Psalm 139:1) his greatness because the full extent of God’s greatness and power is beyond human comprehension.

v.4: One generation praises your deeds to the next and proclaims your mighty works.

Praise helps preserve the faith as it is passed down from one generation to the next.

The knowledge of the LORD is preserved largely through instruction, but the living faith through continued proclamation.

v.5: They speak of the splendor of your majestic glory, tell of your wonderful deeds.

v.6: They speak of the power of your awesome acts and recount your great deeds.

v.7: They celebrate your abounding goodness and joyfully sing of your justice.

Each generation will testify to God’s mighty works, his glorious majesty, and the might of his awe-inspiring deeds.

The descriptions used in vv.4-7 are found frequently in the Psalter, but the piling up of them is almost overpowering: First it is simply “your deeds”; then it is “your mighty works” (Psalm 45:3); then it increases to “splendor of your majestic glory” (Psalm 19:1; Psalm 96:6); it changes to “wonderful deeds” (Psalm 139:5); then “the power of your awesome acts” (Psalm 29:1; :11); “your great deeds” (Psalm 34:3); “abounding goodness” (:5; Psalm 34:8); and finally “your justice,” signifying the cause for these works (:5).

These are all general descriptions; individual praise would necessarily elaborate on them with specific personal experience that could only be described with these terms.

Because the psalmist is speaking on behalf of the people, the people may be following his lead: they will praise while he praises, and then they will continue to praise from one generation to the next.

v.8: The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy.

v.9: The LORD is good to all, compassionate toward all your works.

The psalmist focuses his attention on the wonderful and gracious works of God that are gracious.

The list is similar to Psalm 103:8 and probably represents a liturgical formula.

It is drawn from Exodus 34:6.

God is gracious (:1), compassionate (:6), slow to anger (Psalm 30:5), and great in loyal love (Psalm 23:6).

These attributes were revealed to Moses after the great sin of the golden calf, when people needed confirmation of God’s grace and love.

v.10: All your works give you thanks, LORD, and your faithful bless you.

The psalmist makes a general statement that everything God made will praise him (Psalm 6:5), particularly those who receive his love, that is, the beloved will bless him.

v.11: They speak of the glory of your reign and tell of your mighty works,

v.12: Making known to the sons of men your mighty acts, the majestic glory of your rule.

The emphasis here is on the Lord as ruler.

The psalmist repeats many of the words used above for the praise of the people: the Lord’s kingdom is glorious, powerful, and majestic.

v.13a: Your reign is a reign for all ages, your dominion for all generations.

Now however he adds “for all ages”; literally, it is “a kingdom of all ages” (Psalm 61:4).

The word “for all ages,” everlasting, includes all time from the remotest past to the distant future.

The language used here is similar to the words of the Babylonian king who finally extolled the sovereign greatness of the Lord (Daniel 4:3).

Even with the additional revelation in the New Testament it is difficult to imagine what a kingdom of all ages fully means.

But understand it all or not, the righteous will proclaim the glory of God’s kingdom so that everyone might know of his mighty acts and the glory of the splendor of his kingdom.

It is the mighty acts that make the kingdom so great.

v.13b: The LORD is trustworthy in all his words, and loving in all his works.

The kingdom of God is truly great.

What sets it apart from all earthly kingdoms is that it is eternal and that its greatness is its grace.

The cosmic excellence of the kingdom is not seen in symbols of earthly pride and power, but in the Lord’s faithfulness in all his words and loving to all he has made.

The psalmist focuses on the fidelity of the king—he keeps his promises.

v.14: The LORD supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

The Lord extends his love to all he made by meeting the needs of every living creature.

Here is God the faithful provider.

The initial sample of his care is in helping those who have fallen or bent low.

The expressions describe people who are beaten down, perhaps by oppression or illness. They are weakened and depressed.

v.15: The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them their food in due season.

v.16: You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord intervenes in numerous ways to restore them.

He is their king for sure, but he is also their God; he can deliver people from any and every difficulty.

Moreover, he provides food for all his creation so that their needs will be satisfied (Psalm 104:27, 28; Job 38:39-41).

v.17: The LORD is just in all his ways, merciful in all his works.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving to all he made.

His loving care for all creation is the natural outworking of his righteousness—everything he does is right because it flows from his character.

If he is good to creation in general, how much more to his covenant people.

And so within the covenant his righteousness will be most clearly displayed, for he has bound himself to those who trust in him.

v.18: The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.

The LORD is near to those who call on him faithfully.

To be “near” means that he answers their prayers and helps them (In Psalm 22 that unanswered prayer was explained as God’s being far off).

Those who call on him are the believers who pray for help, appealing to his covenant promises and basing their confidence on his revealed nature.

v.19: He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.

These are committed believers because they fear the Lord.

They are not strangers to the covenant who in a moment of panic try calling on God. No, they believe in him, they fear him, they love him, and they cry out to him for help.

v.20: The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he destroys.

The Lord responds to the faith of his people with faithfulness: he hears their cries and saves them (:2).

In general, the Lord watches over (Psalm 12:7) those who love him, that is all who are faithful to the covenant (Psalm 11:7).

But the loving care does not extend to the wicked whom he will destroy (Psalm 1:6).

From the divine king comes amazing acts of grace and care; but if people refuse to trust and obey, they will have no share in his kingdom, now or in the ages to come.

v.21: My mouth will speak the praises of the LORD; all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

The psalmist concludes where he began with a declaration that he will praise the Lord.

This is the natural and expected response to anyone’s contemplation of the greatness and goodness of God.

Moreover, in his praise he also desires that “all flesh,” everyone, will bless his holy name forever.

Because the Lord’s reign is universal, everyone must praise him.

Message and Application

The message of his praise psalm has a very clear application: Praise the Lord, now and always, faithfully and enthusiastically.

Believers must praise the Lord now and forever for the greatness of his everlasting kingdom and for the gracious ways he responds to those who love him.

There are many passages that can be correlated to the message of this psalm easily.

The ways of the LORD are beyond our knowledge (Romans 11:13-6), but he has revealed his sovereign kingdom to us by and through the Messiah (Daniel 7:14).

It is an everlasting kingdom that will come in its full glory at the end of the age (Revelation 19:6; Philippians 2:9-11).

But its greatness will extend to his condescension to care for his creation and to deliver those who trust in him and bring them into his eternal kingdom (Revelation 19:7).

At his appearance kings will be dumbfounded, for this one who emptied himself to redeem people will be high and lifted up above everyone (Isaiah 52:13-53:12).

What the psalmist writes about from his knowledge and experience will ultimately be revealed in a splendor and glory that is for now beyond comprehension.

And praise offered now will become far more glorious in the world to come.

4) MEDITATION (What the Word suggests to me): a) We read the Word again. b) Select the word or a brief phrase which touched you or impressed you. Repeat this word/phrase aloud and slowly 3 times. Between each repetition allow a moment of silence for the Word to penetrate into our hearts. c) We will remain silent for a few minutes, and let the Lord speak to us. d) We now share what the Lord has given us in this word. We avoid discussions or sermons or comments on what others have said. We share what the Lord has told us personally by using such expressions as, “To me this word has said …”

5) QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (What the Word asks me): a) Am I forming in myself the habit of giving extensive time to prayer? b) Do I practice what I say in the liturgy: “Always and everywhere to give thanks, Almighty Father.” c) Do I show to others God’s abundant mercy and slowness to anger? d) Do I rely on the Lord for strength and consolation? 6) WORD OF LIFE (What the Word reminds me):

I will praise your name forever and ever

7) ACTION (What the Word invites me to do):

I will recall and celebrate God’s generosity and goodness in at least 10 events that occurred to me today.

8) PRAYER

And may the blessing of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon us and with us remain forever and ever.