Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

Okay.  So, I realize that having a daily responsorial Psalm is not distinctively Catholic.  A number of other liturgically oriented communities also have these; I say good for them.  They help to keep worship from becoming stagnant or monolithic.  I have been a music leader in various congregations and for various age groups (I am a very amateur musician).  And, I have often wondered – Where are the songs of lament?

I think that having a daily Psalm or at least a weekly Psalm helps to keep me in contact with the lament aspect of faith and worship (in addition to having a Penitential Rite).  I am reminded that it is okay to get mad and ask difficult questions like “Why have you forsaken me?”  It protects me from always having to sing happy songs or songs that do nothing but praise God.

I do not often comment on the Psalms for the day, unless I think there is some interesting or pertinent issue there.  I think the reason for this is that I do not want to over analyze them and lose much of the feeling that they evoke.  Yet they are one of my favorite parts of being Catholic (or at least being part of a liturgically oriented community).

If you are interested in a translation of the Psalms that tries to bring some aspects of the Hebrew poetry into English, you might check out Robert Alter’s.  HERE is an article in Slate where he describes his work.

Today’s response is Psalm 136.  Our Sunday night music group plays a song based on this Psalm with some regularity, but I must admit that this is one of the texts that I struggle with a great deal.  The refrain is “His love endures forever.”  If you have been around the field of Biblical Studies much you know there is some debate over the translation of this word translated love.  Does it mean something like “steadfast love?”  Does it mean “mercy?”  Does it mean something like “covenant loyalty?”  And, the debate goes on.

Personally, I think “covenant loyalty” fits in this context.  If not, then verse ten of the Psalm reads (though this verse is actually not in the section for today’s response):

10 who struck Egypt through their firstborn,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

I never really thought about this text in particular (though I have had similar thoughts about the Passover narrative) as problematic until I was teaching seminarians.  One of my students said that the response for that particular day had been Psalm 136.  And, he found the concept of love difficult to reconcile with some of the acts retold in the Psalm.  And, I agreed.  I don’t really find the translation “love” adequate here.  I think it is at least confusing for English readers.

At any rate, I encouraged my student to read texts like this honestly.  I told him that, at least in my own mind, I am more concerned about people who can read texts like this without a second glance or without sparing a thought for Egyptian children (though, as I believe I have stated before on this blog, I do not believe the Exodus took place exactly as the Bible describes it) than I am about someone who reads it and struggles at least a bit.

The primary Old Testament lectionary reading today comes from Joshua 3 and involves the Israelites passing through the Jordan on dry ground.  I have already commented briefly on that text HERE.  In that reading the waters are “cut off” and “stand still.”  But, Psalm 114 presents the more poetic perspective, which I like better.  It actually appears that the waters of the Jordan (and the waters of the sea in the Exodus for that matter) were running away from the LORD.  In verses three and five the waters of the Jordan “turn around,” this is in parallel with the waters of the sea “fleeing” in the Exodus.  The trembling of the earth in verse 7 adds to the picture in the sense that the waters are running away not simply because God commanded, but more because they are afraid.  Very cool word picture since we typically think of water as inanimate. Check it out:

1 When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became God’s​​ sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled;
Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water. (NRSV)

I have previously posted on henotheism in the Old Testament and explained what this is. Today’s Psalm contains another statement that reflects henotheism. It reads as follows: “For you, LORD, are most high over all the earth; You are very highly exalted over all gods” (emphasis added). Here again the existence of other deities is not denied (though this does happen later). Yet there is only one deity who is deemed worthy of worship.