Pondering a Psalm

Today is one of the very few Feasts which interrupt Lent : the Chair of S. Peter – the day on which the Church celebrates the Petrine Office.

As a result, the Divine Office for today is not of a penitential character, as even the psalmody is proper to the Feast; but during Vespers this evening I was struck by the appropriateness of one of the psalms to Lent, and it led me to ponder further.

The psalm in question was Psalm 125 (126) :

1 When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage :
it seemed like a dream.
2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
on our lips there were songs :
The heathens themselves said
‘What marvels the Lord worked for them !’
3 What marvels the Lord worked for us ! : Indeed we were glad.
4 Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage : as streams in dry land.
5 Those who are sowing in tears : will sing when they reap.
6 They go out, they go out, full of tears,
carrying seed for the sowing :
they come back, they come back, full of song,
carrying their sheaves.

Now : taking the liberty of turning the psalm round – that is, putting vv.4-6 first, followed by vv.1-3 – you find yourself considering Lent and Easter in a very apt way, and within a very small space.

4 Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage : as streams in dry land.
The psalmist, who speaks of the restoration of Israel after its exile, begs God to deliver them from the bondage of doubt and despair which must have beset them when they returned to their native land. He thinks of the amazing speed with which the desert flowers when rain eventually falls; the incredible effect which God’s generous providence has, even in what seems to be completely dead.

In the same way we, at the beginning of Lent, turn and consider ourselves : ‘Remember, O Man, that you are dust : and unto dust you shall return’.

We, like the desert, are dry, dead, ground; and we can do nothing without the bountiful mercy of God, which can release us from our bondage to sin, by giving life to the goodness which He has hidden deep within us.

5 Those who are sowing in tears : will sing when they reap.
The psalmist is thinking of the labour of the Israelites in rebuilding their nation; and promising that their labours will be rewarded in joy.

For us, the ‘labour’ of Lent in self-discipline, in penance, prayer, and almsgiving, will be rewarded by the recognition at Easter of God’s unbounded love for us.

6 They go out, they go out, full of tears,
carrying seed for the sowing :
they come back, they come back, full of song,
carrying their sheaves.
The psalmist’s metaphor reinforces this, the most important point in the psalm : that our acceptance of the toils before us provide the seed which will be watered by God’s love, and grow – in time – to spiritual fruitfulness and joy at Easter

1 When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage :
it seemed like a dream.
2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
on our lips there were songs :
The heathens themselves said
‘What marvels the Lord worked for them !’
3 What marvels the Lord worked for us ! : Indeed we were glad.
So, as the psalmist rejoices in the Lord’s deliverance of His people from their bondage in exile, and reminds us that their joy was so great that all who saw them recognized God’s glory and generosity from their lives, we remind ourselves that He will work marvels for us, if we accept the discipline of Lent, so that at Easter – and most particularly at the Paschal Vigil, ‘our mouths will be filled with laughter, and on our lips there will be songs’.

In other words, we nust constantly tell ourselves, even now, that Lent is but a short time; a workshop in which to prepare for Easter, and for eternity, by accepting the toils which are set before us. We must take up the good seed which God offers us, and go forth, sowing it, in preparation for Easter.

Bishop Christopher Wordsworth used a similar ‘harvest’ metaphor for Easter in one verse of his famous hymn:

‘Christ is risen, Christ the first-fruits
Of the holy harvest field,
Which will all its full abundance
At His second coming yield;
Then the golden ears of harvest
Will their heads before Him wave,
Ripened by His glorious sunshine
From the furrows of the grave.’

We pray, then, that at the end of Lent we too will ‘come back, full of song, carrying our sheaves’; and rejoicing for a time here as we pray that one day we shall rejoice for ever in Heaven.