Psalm 66--This was the psalm that was our Response in the Revised Common Lectionary yesterday, the 6th Sunday of the Easter season. This is a psalm about giving testimony/bearing witness to God's saving actions in the world and in the life of the psalmist.
66:5-- Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds among mortals
66:16-- Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for me.
These ideas bracket this psalm, though the psalmist sees his hardships as testing from God:
66:10-- You, O God, have tested us;
You have tried us as silver is tried.
You brought us into the net
you laid burdens on our backs;
you let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water
YET you have brought us out into a spacious place.
It takes a special kind of trust to see God as bringing us through places of suffering: flat-out saying that God took us to those hard places--and then to be aware that it was also God's guidance that brought us to the "spacious places" in our lives.
Psalm 67-- Here's more language about God's face "shining upon us".
This is simply a joyous and beautiful psalm, one we should rejoice in praying to God on a regular basis.
Psalm 68-- This is also a song of praise, filled with imagery of God as God of the Storm, the clouds, the rain, which, in the arid Near East, is truly a blessing.
68:11 is one of the verses that we hear in Handel's Messiah: "The LORD Gave the Word" which you can hear at the link.
(Just so you don't think you're crazy, it has not been clear to biblical scholars either, what exactly is happening with 68:13 "the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with green gold", which seems perhaps to be a thing that was part of the spoil..." )
Also, in this psalm, enjoy the description of the musicians participating in a holy procession in 68:24-27.
Psalm 69-- If the previous psalm is one of triumph, this psalm is one of desperation by a loyal servant of God who is really going through hard times. Note how it is associated with and quoted in the synoptic gospels in association with the crucifixion of Jesus (v. 21)
And what are we to do with the kind of prayer the psalmist prays in vss 22-28? These are the sorts of verses that are sometimes called "imprecatory," i.e. imprecations or calling down God's wrath on those the psalmist perceives to be God's enemies.
Note also how the mood of the psalmist turns by the end:
v. 33-36 The LORD hears the needy,
and does not despise his own that are in bonds.
Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and everything that moves i them.
For God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah;
and his servants shall live there and possess it;
the children of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall live in it.
Psalm 70-- This is the psalm that was particularly beloved of the Desert Fathers.
v. 1-- Be pleased, O God, to deliver me.
O Lord, make haste to help me!"
John Cassian writes: This then, is the devotional formula proposed to you as absolutely necessary for possessing the perpetual awareness of God: "O God, incline to my aid; O Lord, make haste to help me." Not without reason has this verse been selected from out of the whole body of Scripture. For it takes up all the emotions that can be applied to human nature and with great correctness and accuracy it adjusts itself to every condition and every attack. ...This verse, I say, is necessary and useful for each one of us in whatever condition we may live. For whoever desires to be helped always and in all things shows that he needs God as a helper not only in hard and sad affairs but also and equally and as much in favorable and joyful ones, so that just as he may be snatched from the former he may abide in the latter, know that in neither instance can human frailty endure without his assistance" Conferences 10.9.2-5 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Vol.8. Ed. by Quentin Wesselschmidt, 2007. Downers Grove, IL InterVarsity, p. 88.)
Psalm 71-- Prayer to God for rescue in time of trouble. Note how v. 12 puts this psalm in relation to the one that came before it:
71:12-- O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
Psalm 72-- This is a "Royal Psalm" attributed to Solomon.
The petition in v. 2 is part of daily prayer in the Anglican Tradition:
72:2-- May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
Note how the expected role of a king is to "defend the cause of the poor," to "give deliverance to the needy" and in order to do so, to "crush the oppressor." (v. 4).
Note how this psalm incorporates and expands the traditional ideal boundaries for Israel (the Sea to the Great River), making it clear that God is the God of the whole universe:
Psalm 72:8--May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth"
The "River" is the Euphrates.
Psalm 73-- This one is attributed to Asaph.
The psalmist is aware of how God pulls him back from the brink of useless and destructive thoughts about the "arrogant and the wicked."
73:16--"But when I thought to understand this [the ways of the wicked]
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God
then I perceived their end.
Psalm 74-- One of the great "Why, LORD?" psalms! The psalmist sees the destruction of war
74:4-- Your foes have roared within your holy place;
they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire
they desecrated the dwelling place of your name,
bringing it to the ground.
And then he asks: Why? How long will you let this go on?
But then we come to the marvelous word: "YET.." v. 12:
YET God my King is from old,
working salvation to the earth.
Then the petition comes to God: "REMEMBER!" (v. 18) "Have regard!" (v. 20)
and finally, "Rise up, O God!" (v. 22)
and "Do not forget" (v. 23)
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