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| Musical Musings: Lent | Page 2 |
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The Psalms of Lent A (Part 2)Psalm 51Miserere
The quintessential psalm for Lent, the Miserere is one of the Seven Penitential Psalms (others are Psalms 6, 32, 38, 102, 130, 143). Its use at the beginning of the season (Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday), as well as its choice as a Common Psalm, speak much of its value as a "Prayer of Repentance." The psalm is believed to have been written by King David after his revelatory encounter with the prophet Nathan, who spoke in parable about the King's misdeeds with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite [see II Samuel 12:1-15]. Nathan brings David to repentance and assures him of God's forgiveness. In our Lenten journey, repentance for sin is essential, but forgiveness by God must also be assumed. Br. Benedict Janecko writes: We can go through life believing like Judas that our sin is too great; it cannot be forgiven. Or we can take Peter's stance who, on the day of his "First Communion and Ordination," wept bitterly over his sin of betrayal. But he did not despair. We who are "washed from guilt" can once more taste "the joy of God's salvation." This Responsorial ends with one of the most common versicles in the psalter, one that begins every day in the Liturgy of the Hours:
O Lord, open my lips, Psalm 91Qui habitat
This is a psalm of security under God's protection. The "shelter of the Most High" and "the shadow of the Almighty" can be metaphors for the Temple, the safe spot where God dwells and protects his faithful from outside forces. With the middle verses of the psalm, the author extends this divine protection beyond the Temple walls with a litany of safekeeping: God will rescue us from the snare of the fowler, from the terror by night and the arrow by day, from pestilence, and from plague. We have God's promise of angel sentinels to guard us in all our ways. By God's power they shall bear us up; we can "tread upon the asp and the viper," we can "trample down the lion and the dragon." In the final verse we hear God the Lord himself speak: "He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in distress; I will deliver him and glorify him." Psalm 95Venite exultemus
Another psalm of the Temple, which the Church uses daily in her Liturgy of the Hours. In the Office of Reading [Matins], the Invitatory, which follows the opening versicle from Psalm 51 quoted above ("O Lord, open my lips..."), includes the whole of Psalm 95. In this psalm, the faithful are invited to come and enter the Temple, where, according to Richard J. Clifford, SJ, "Yahweh's power is manifested in building and ritual." Songs of joy and thanksgiving open the psalm. But soon the tone turns to humilty; we bow deeply on our knees before the Omnipotent Creator who made us and shepherds us. Beyond humility we are promptly challenged to faithfulness. Unlike God's people of old, who tempted and questioned him at the places of "contention" (Meribah) and "testing" (Massah), we are encouraged to heed the voice of the Lord. Then our hardened, stony hearts can be refreshed, becoming warm hearts of flesh. Psalm 130De profundis
In another of the Seven Penitential Psalms we see a "Prayer for Pardon and Mercy." The De profundis also accompanies the Church's funeral liturgies — from the grave or the "grave of sin" we cry "out of the depths" to the Lord. Our comfort is this: that the Lord does not mark iniquities, does not record sins. God does not "keep score." While we do expect God to be just with us, we are here assured that he is merciful and forgiving. Trust leads our souls to "wait for the Lord." With what emotion does the watchman wait for dawn? — with eagerness, perhaps with patience; with hope, perhaps with restlessness. But above all, the watchman waits with trust — he knows the dawn will come, he needs but endure. God's mercy is likewise secure — it will come as surely as the dawn. In reality, as in this psalm, "God's last word is a word of forgiveness." |
Back to Part 1: Intro and Psalms 22, 23, 33