Dear friends, let us continue in our attempt to see the world of the Psalms in relation to our everyday life. This relation is easy to perceive in the so-called Psalms of Ascent, or Pilgrim Songs, which were written to serve as wings that would carry us out of the difficulties of the day into the peace of God's city, Jerusalem. We have seen that this is the meaning of psalms 119, 120, and 121, the psalms that in the rule of St. Benedict are said at the hour of terse. The following three psalms, 122, 123, and 124, form the hours of sext, the noon hour. These we like to discuss tonight. Noon is another important phase of our everyday life.

[01:08]

It is the height and, paradoxically enough, the crisis of the day. The new sun has reached its full power. People feel great, having several hours of good, successful work behind them, but at the same time they also are sensitive to the fact that their steam, their energy, is limited. The freshness of the morning has passed. and with it the fascination and the momentum and the promise of a new beginning. Fatigue begins to be felt around noontime. A certain listlessness is creeping into the hearts. People begin to realize their limitations, and their first reaction is fear. Will they be able to hold on to a position of effectiveness and power?

[02:15]

People begin to feel threatened by those around them. They become defensive, and in this state are often driven to attack others. by trying to take advantage of the failings that begin to show up on every side. Criticisms and harsh reactions are spreading in an atmosphere of coldness and hostility. When you become aware of the noonday demon, of which, as you remember, Psalm 90 is speaking, Remember that this is the hour when human history reached its crisis, when Christ was lifted up on the cross by the hate of the proud. And there was darkness over all the land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, as it says in the Report on the Passion according to St.

[03:25]

Matthew, chapter 27. This darkness that covered the earth at the height and crisis of Christ's day is reflected in the Psalms of Sext. Those who pray them are taken into its mystery. Let us begin with Psalm 122, and since it is so short and simple, I will read to you the entire text. To you have I lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens. My eyes, like the eyes of slaves on the hands of their lords, like the eyes of a servant on the hands of their mistress, so our eyes are on the Lord our God till He show us His mercy. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.

[04:27]

We are filled with contempt. Indeed, all too full is our soul with the scorn of the rich, with the proud man's disdain. We are filled with contempt. This is the true nature of the darkness that marks the crisis of the noon hour. Contempt, the scorn of the rich, the proud man's disdain that pierce the hearts of the poor and fill them to the brim. This has been the bitter experience of the Jews through the centuries of their exile, but not of the Jews alone. But millions of human souls have suffered through the proud man's disdain in the course of history, and the great majority of men find themselves in the same condition even in these our days.

[05:31]

And yet, something has happened which affects and transforms the sense of utter helplessness and despair that overwhelms those who suffer in silence. Christ, the Son of God, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, humbled Himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and therefore God has highly exalted Him. and gave him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord through the glory of God the Father."

[06:33]

Philippians chapter 2, verse 5, and the following. When we are pondering the meaning of Psalm 122, we understand that it is the prayer of one, note that the singular is used in the first verse, to you I lifted up my eyes, or rather of us, the plural is used in verse three, have mercy on us. who are satiated with the contempt of the rest of man. We realize that we pray this psalm in the person of Christ. Please turn your attention to the account of the passion of our Lord, as Luke gives it, beginning with chapter 22, verse 47. Go through this passage slowly, and you will realize that the essential part of our Lord's passion does not consist in the physical sufferings He was being subjected to, but in the complete annihilation of all personal dignity by a world that hated Him.

[07:59]

Here I remind you of the mob that approached him in the night with swords and staves, as if they were hunting a thief. Think of his disciple and friend Judas, who betrayed him with a kiss, the sign of love. Think of the denial of Peter, who had just before so solemnly professed his faithfulness. Think of the accusations by the Jews, the insults he suffered from Herod and his retinue, his rejection by the crowd in favor of Barabbas. And you will realize then that the words of the psalm, we are satiated with contempt, are fulfilled in the person of Jesus. All the hostility and hate of the world has been poured into his heart. Truly it was the hour of darkness, Luke 22, 53.

[09:06]

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness grasped it not, John 1, 5. Far from being crushed by the power of darkness, Christ let the light of His grace shine forth even more brilliantly. Watch the Lord's reaction to His disciples' betrayal. Is it one of indignation, of just wrath, of rejection? No. Jesus said unto him, Friend, for what purpose did you come? A question clearly dictated by love, intended to help Judas to face the truth of what he was about to do. This is the attitude of Jesus throughout. He does not want the sword to defend him. He rather heals the wounds.

[10:10]

He saves. He prays, Father, forgive them. for they know not what they do. Jesus met the hatred of his enemies with grace, the Hebrew chen, C-H-E-N. And this is the key word of the entire psalm, the word chen, or kanina. I will read to you the decisive verse where this term occurs. Like the eyes of the slaves on the hands of their lords, so our eyes are on the Lord our God till He show His mercy. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. The term chin has been translated here with the word mercy. But in reality, the word Khen means the gracious love or affection of the Lord for the servant, or rather of the higher one for the lower one.

[11:22]

In German, we have a perfect translation, of course, in the word Geneigtheit, being inclined, which renders the root meaning of Khen. or also Gunst in German, in English meaning favor or grace. Applied to the relation between God and Israel, Chen includes also the granting of spiritual gifts by God to His favored servant Israel. Please compare Psalm 66 right at the beginning. O God, be gracious and bless us, and let your face shed its light upon us. The first expression, be gracious, points to spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts.

[12:25]

The second, bless us, is in this connection rather the granting of material well-being. The first is for the mind, the second rather for the body, and the phrase, Let your face shed its light upon us, refers to the communication of God's loving intentions, of His plan of salvation to His servants. The words of the angel addressed to Mary shed all the light of the New Testament on all these Old Testament terms. Hail Mary, full of kin, grace, or highly favored. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. In the incarnation of the Word of God, Both Hebrew terms, kanan, to grant spiritual favors, and barach, the material blessing, are fulfilled, and in Christ, the face of the Father, shines upon us and turns slaves into friends.

[13:42]

Conferred John 1515. Now you are able to praise Psalm 122 not only as one among the millions of alienated people in the world, but in Christ as a member of his body. He emptied himself to be filled with all the hate and contempt of the world, down to the last depths of loneliness and rejection. God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then he transformed it all into grace. Extending his hands to a mocking crowd, he prayed, Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. They are the slaves of the father of lies, the murderer from the beginning. But you are able in Christ to lift up your eyes above the realm of the powers of darkness to the One who dwells in the heavens, but looks into the abyss of your loneliness, showing you His face, the Word made flesh,

[15:04]

and answering your cry for spiritual consolation and support by sending you His slave, His Spirit, that speaks in you, saying, Abba, dear Father. Let us turn now to Psalm 123. It's the second psalm of sixth. The height of the day, noontime, brings with it, as we said, the crisis of the day. As right in the center of Christ's day, from the sixth to the ninth hours, darkness took over and covered the whole earth. And in explaining Psalm 110, 22, the first of the Psalms of Sixth, I just try to show that this darkness consists in the contempt that those who are at ease, the proud ones, the sure ones,

[16:20]

have for those who lift up their eyes to Jarvis' hands as slaves who watch the hands of their masters to receive a sign of His grace. The Son of Man has entered into the world of these slaves. and has taken upon himself the terrifying burden of hate and scorn and lies and alienation, sorrow and despair, that freezes the hearts of the poor. He has lifted this burden, this dark cloud, in the power of his love, and lets the light of the risen face shine over the multitude whom he addresses, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[17:22]

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you, and shall say all matter of evil against you falsely for my sake. Matthew 5, verse 3 to 11. In these words we see the face of the Father's graciousness, His kin, that shows us the way through the darkness of hostility into the light and warmth of His kindness. In the following Psalm 123, the crisis has passed. Certainly Israel has been liberated from its enemies and is invited to give thanks to the Lord.

[18:33]

I will read you the text. If the Lord had not been on our side... This is Israel's song. If the Lord had not been on our side when men rose against us, then would they have swallowed us alive when their anger was kindled. Then would the waters have engulfed us, the torrent gone over us, or our head would have swept the raging waters. Blessed be the Lord who did not give us a prey to their teeth. Our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler. Indeed, the snare has been broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.

[19:38]

Now the commentators of the Psalms present us with different conjectures as to the historical occasion out of which this psalm has been born. Many refer to the sudden end to which Cyrus, the victorious king of Persia, wrought the Babylonian exile when he conquered Babylonia and allowed the deported Jews to return to their homeland. It is true that the psalm reverberates from the excitement of a sudden, unexpected change in the fortunes of Israel. But it would be just as well not to waste one's time over historical speculations. and to understand the situation as a typical one, which happens again and again whenever God's people find themselves in a, humanly speaking, hopeless situation.

[20:57]

If the Lord had not been on our side, this is Israel's song. if the Lord had not been on our side when men rose against us. You see, this is a general situation, typical for God's people. Men rise against it. Here we are confronted with the mystery of what the Old Testament calls causeless hatred. Hatred without a reason. The mystery of iniquity. This mystery is not limited to the Old Testament either. The Lord himself God's Anointed One was a light shining in darkness, and the darkness rose against it.

[22:11]

Jesus tells His enemies the reason why they are against Him in spite of the fact that none of them is able to convince Him of sin. John 8, 46 He says, you are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. John 8, 23. He that is of God hears the words of God. You hear them not, because you are not of God." John 8, 47. Our Lord's experience was also going to be the experience of his disciples throughout the ages.

[23:17]

If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." John 15, verse 18 to 19. You see clearly The words of the psalm are not limited to any specific event in the history of the Jewish people. They refer just as well to us Christians. We remember it from the beginnings of the history of the first two centuries after Christ in the persecutions of the Christians at that time.

[24:29]

We experience it again in our own days, and the Apocalypse describes it as an essential part of the end of all history. The superior force is always with our enemies. They would swallow us alive in their anger, as our psalm says. They possess the incredible power that the raging waters develop in the gorges of the Palestinian desert after one of those sudden downpours that are so frequent in that region. It is precisely this vivid, crushing experience of our weakness When we are confronted with the powers of chaos, it is precisely this experience which opens our eyes to the fact that it is God alone who has saved us.

[25:48]

We could not have achieved liberation or salvation in such a situation through our own strength. If God had not been on our side, the psalm continues. Now, what happened? How did God show His greater power? Perhaps by creating bigger armies or more destructive war machines? No. What happened? Read verse 7 of our psalm. It is the key verse. There it simply says, the snare broke and we are free.

[26:51]

The snare broke. The very instrument in which the enemies had put all their trust was not destroyed by any superior power or any more effective technique on our part, on man's part, on our enemy's part. It broke by itself. This is the central fact that the psalm wants to impress upon us. One cannot say or think that the divine intervention takes place by a miraculous show of superior military force on the part of God. Jahweh is not a warrior in the human sense.

[28:00]

That is the difference between the battles of the God in pagan myth and the strategy of God as He reveals Himself in the Old and then in an infinitely superior way in the New Testament.

[28:24]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ