“Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise
befits the upright.” (Psalm 33:1)
“Yes, I agree,” I want to say to the
psalmist, “But what about the rest of us?” I know I am not a righteous person,
at least, not in and of myself. In fact, by my reckoning, there is only one
totally righteous person who ever lived. And that righteous person was perfect
at praising God too. His name is Jesus. He is my only hope of ever becoming
righteous, as he works in me by his grace, over a lifetime. So I would like to
re-word this psalm, “Rejoice in Jesus, O you unrighteous person, for in Jesus
there is hope.”
To do the psalmist justice, he comes to a similar
conclusion by the end of this psalm, even though he did not know Jesus. He
says, “Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in
his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in
famine.” (Psalm 33:18-19)
C.S. Lewis has a good word about praise, whether
we find such praise in psalms like this one or elsewhere….
…all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless
(sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately
brought in to check it. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their
mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside,
players praising their favourite game—praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors,
motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers,
mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars.
I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and
capacious minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised
least. (Reflections on the Psalms)
Thus, if we are enjoying God, that enjoyment will
naturally flow over into praise, just as it does in many of the psalms.
Psalm 34 has been a comfort to me at many times
in my life, and it felt no different as I read these beautiful words today. One
of the best lines is in verse 8: “O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy
are those who take refuge in him.”
Again, Lewis is so insightful….
We—or at least I—shall not be able to adore God on the
highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At
best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not
have found Him so, not have “tasted
and seen.” Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the
sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and
spontaneous pleasures are “patches of Godlight” in the woods of our experience.
(Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer)
Therefore, as the psalmist says, “I will bless
the Lord at all times.” I love what
G. K. Chesterton says in this regard….
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace
before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and
grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming,
fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in
the ink.
In Psalm 35 the psalmist prays, “Contend, O Lord,
with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!”
While I am sometimes tempted to pray this way, I have found the prayer of St.
Anselm for his enemies much more helpful….
Thou therefore, O Lord,
who alone art mighty, whatsoever Thou makest me to desire for mine enemies, be
that Thy gift unto them, and Thine answer to my prayer. And if I at any time
ask for them anything which transgresseth the rule of love, whether through
ignorance or through infirmity or through wickedness, neither do that to them,
nor fulfil my petition therein. Thou who art the true Light, enlighten their blindness. Thou who art supreme Truth, amend their error.
Thou art the true Life, quicken their souls. For Thou hast said by Thy beloved
Disciple, He that loveth not his
brother, abideth in death. I pray therefore, O Lord, that Thou grant to them so much love of Thee and of their neighbour as Thou
commandest us to have, lest they should have sin before Thee concerning their
brother.
The psalmist concludes Psalm 36 by asking,
O continue your
steadfast love to those who know you,
and your salvation to
the upright of heart!
Do not let the foot
of the arrogant tread on me,
or the hand of the
wicked drive me away.
There the evildoers
lie prostrate;
they are thrust down,
unable to rise.
It seems to me that if we prayed in the more
Christian manner of Anselm, then we would ask the Lord to continue his
steadfast love, not only to those who know him, and his salvation to the
upright of heart, but also to those who don’t know him, to the arrogant and
wicked and evildoers, so that they might come to know God’s love as well, and
thereby have their wicked ways turned to the right. And one unrighteous person for whom I need to pray in this way is myself.
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