Blessed are you, O Lord;
[PSALM 119:12-16]
instruct me in your statutes.
With my lips will I recite
all the judgments of your mouth.
I have taken greater delight in the way of your decrees
than in all manner of riches.
I will meditate on your commandments
and give attention to your ways.
My delight is in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
| ADVENT DAILY OFFICE READINGS |
|---|
| AM Psalm 119:1-24; PM Psalm 12, 13, 14 Amos 3:12-4:5; 2 Pet. 3:1-10; Matt. 21:23-32 |
Before diving into today’s reflection, I feel a need to say a few words about Psalm 119.
Some of you already know this, but it bears repeating that Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the psalter.
It totals 176 verses, grouped into twenty-two segments of eight verses each.
Each segment begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Today, we read the first three segments of the psalm. Over the course of this Advent season, we will encounter Psalm 119 three times. Therefore, we will cover only nine of the psalm’s twenty-segments.
However, if you pray the daily office you will come across it in section in the weeks after Easter and the week after Pentecost.
I would encourage you to find a time to read the psalm in its entirety, despite its length.
In summary, the psalm stresses the benefits of studying God’s word.
It is poetic, and because of its poetic structure, it suggests a sense of order.
One of the best-known verses of this psalm, which is not part of our reading today, is verse 105:
Your word is a lantern to my feet
and a light upon my path.
The late Walter Brueggemann, in his book The Message of the Psalms,[i]describes Psalm 119 as “a statement of trust and submission to a God who has been found to be good and generous.” (Brueggemann, p. 41)
The words of Psalm 119 bring to mind several saints that embodied that trust in God that Brueggemann emphasized in his comment.
I was blessed to have come across a few of them in my ministry.
One that left an indelible mark on me was a parishioner in a church I served.
Her name was Betty.
One month into my call at the congregation I had been invited to visit her so she could meet me, and so that, in her words, “then I could go ahead and bury her.”
She was homebound, but my monthly pastoral visits were always pleasant.
I can say without exaggeration that she lived her life surrounded and filled with the marvelous love and grace of our living Lord.
Betty grew up in the depression, which was part of the reason that she enlisted in the army along with her husband. She was widowed at an early age, with two young children. Even before I met her, her previous several years had been a challenge from a health standpoint. But through it all, she persevered.
And Betty asserted that it was the presence of God in her life that enabled her to do so.
Complaints were not a part of her character. God’s love was.
We would usually sit in her kitchen and spend some time looking out her window. The birds and even some squirrels would often be eating from the feeder that is in the front yard. We marveled at God’s creation, and she would sometimes make the rhetorical exclamation, “Isn’t God wonderful?”
I would read Scripture to her. She apologized that her eyes weren’t so good anymore and her memory was failing. Yet far too often when I began reading a particular verse she would finish it for me.
There was hardly any need for the bulletin that we read from as we prepared to take home communion because the Confession, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the responses in the Great Thanksgiving were indelibly ingrained in her.
When she died, the church was filled for her funeral. Her sermon was one of those which wrote itself.
Afterwards, many people shared with me how Betty had touched their lives. Her spirit still lives in their lives.
We need more saints like Betty
Today, we lament the lack of worship attendance, the increasing number of people who claim no particular religious affiliation
A recent Pew Research survey found that, around the world, many people who do not identify with any religion nevertheless still hold a variety of spiritual and religious beliefs.
As a clergy person, I accept a measure of responsibility in contributing to the growing number of “nones”, the nickname for the religiously unaffiliated.
Our Christian education and formation leaves a lot to be desired, and the result is a mass of people that lack a clear understanding of who God is, what is God’s significance in our lives, and what is our purpose in the world.
I believe that psalms like Psalm 119 help to give clarity to our understanding of God’s word, or at least a starting point.
To paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom we quoted yesterday, it is repetitive, and that repetition becomes ingrained in us, to the point that the words remain with us throughout our lifetime.
Let us pray:
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 230-231)
[i] Brueggemann, Walter. The Message of the Psalms, A Theological Commentary. Minneapolis: Augusburg, 1984. (p. 41)
Walking Together in Faith 
Thank you for these reflections. I think of you often and hope you are doing well. Anne
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