Lectionary Reflection
Year A, Lent 3
Standard (Episcopal) Lectionary – Revised
Common Lectionary
Psalm
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Psalm 95
Come, let us sing to the LORD; *
let us shout for joy to the
Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud shout to him
with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *
and the heights of the hills
are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands have molded the
dry land.
Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *
and kneel before the LORD our
Maker. |
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his
pasture and the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you would hearken
to his voice!
Harden not your hearts,
as your forebears did in the
wilderness, *
at Meribah, and on that day
at Massah,
when they tempted me.
They put me to the test, *
though they had seen my works.
Forty years long I detested that generation and said,
*
"This people are wayward in
their hearts;
they do not know my ways."
So I swore in my wrath, *
"They shall not enter into my
rest." |
| New
Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division
of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church
of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. |
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Reflection
on Psalm 95
by John G. Gibbs, PhD
God is in position
to be sovereign over all nations, for God created sea and dry
land, and all that is. Psalm 95 is about God's sovereignty
over all creation, all nations, and God's chosen "people."
First there
is a hymn (vv. 1-7a) to God who is "a great King above all gods."
Then there is a warning against going against the way God constructed
the universe (vv. 7b-11). We are not, for instance, to repeat
the errors described in Exodus 17, when the Community's place
was a place of complaining "Test" and "Quarrel" ("Meribah" and
"Massah") against God. Rather, let the Community be the place
of "joyful noise," "songs of praise," and worship.
The author of
this hymn knows about the pastoral relevance of God the Creator.
The order and meaning that God provided at the outset to all
creation is consistently the same order and meaning that we
know as "the sheep of his hand" and "the people of his pasture."
"In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the
mountains are his also." The very names of God bring together
in this hymn both Creation and Community: "the Lord, the rock
of our salvation, a great King above all gods, our God, our
Maker, a great God."
There is a stirring
and informative discussion about interactions between creation-covenant-consummation
in the January, 2002 issue of Theology Today. In his
arcticle, "A Text That Redescribes," Walter Brueggemann states
this about creation: "Creation is the claim of the text [the
entire biblical text] that the life of the world is bounded
by the self-giving generosity of God. As deep and as far
back as we can go, we will find that generosity. We cannot push
beyond, will, or imagine our life outside the arena of Holy
Generosity" (p. 530)
What could be
more relevant to an age of affluence and ever increasing acquisitions?
God's self-giving generosity in the creation summons us not
only to words and songs of thanksgiving, but also to acts and
deeds that bespeak our thanks to God as we serve all our neighbors,
both human and non-human.
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John
G. Gibbs, PhD, a retired theologan, attended Trinity Episcopal
Church, Park Rapids, MN, when he originally wrote this reflection
in 2002. He and we welcome your comments. Please address your
comments or additional reflections to John
G. Gibbs or any MEESC
member, or mail them to:
MEESC
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