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 Psalter that is attributed to David; and it is the last of the eight alphabetic (acrostic) psalms, five of which are Davidic. Here the acrostic arrangement in the Hebrew Bible 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 Talmud 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” (Psalm 5:12). 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 (Psalm 34:3) 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; Psalm 2:11); “your great deeds” (Psalm 34:3); “abounding goodness” (Psalm 6:5; Psalm 34:8); and finally “your justice,” signifying the cause for these works (Psalm 1:5). 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 (Psalm 4:1), compassionate (Psalm 25:6), 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.