Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray:
Everlasting Father,
All time belongs to you, and all the ages. In signs, in songs, in words of promise, you reassured your chosen ones, “I am with you; fear not.” You taught them through the prophets to trust that your saving deeds were not limited to the past.
When Jesus came, he fulfilled “all that was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
The Church has found him everywhere in these same holy books.
Help me to find Jesus in my reading today, to listen to him, and to follow him with all my heart.
Amen.
Today's chapter (because it is Sunday) is Psalm 119.
Yes, that's right. Today we will only be reading (praying) Psalm 119, a hymn of praise to God for his Word. If you pick up a printed version of the Bible and open it in the middle, you'll easily find Psalm 119, the longest "chapter" in the entire Bible, and the longest of the 150 psalms. In my large format New Jerusalem Bible, Psalm 119 fills 7 pages. In my smaller format New Testament and Psalms, Psalm 119 takes 10 pages.
We have seen acrostic psalms before, but Psalm 119 takes the form up a notch or two: For each successive letter of the alphabet, every line of an eight-line strophe begins with that same letter. And every verse contains either the word "Law" (Torah) or a synonym: commandment, precept, ordinance, statute...
The strophes of Psalm 119 are distributed throughout the Four-Week Psalter, especially at Daytime Prayer, which is a shorter "hour." Psalm 119 helped form the structure of the Liturgy of the Hours, too! "Seven times a day I praise you" (v164) is the ideal behind the division of the Divine Office into seven distinct "hours" or services of prayer: Matins, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline.
With just four weeks to go before we start reading the New Testament (really!), you have had tremendous contact with the Word of God that the Psalmist was so in love with. Which of his verses come closest to expressing your prayer?
2 comments:
This is the first time in a long time I’ve read this psalm straight through. Many verses spoke to me but this passage near the end I’m going to print for my choir music binder:
169 Let my cry come before you, LORD;
in keeping with your word, give me understanding.
170 Let my prayer come before you;
rescue me according to your promise.
171 May my lips pour forth your praise,
because you teach me your statutes.
172 May my tongue sing of your promise,
for all your commandments are righteous.
Thanks for sharing those verses! I have LOTS of favorite lines from Psalm 119; it is very generous with its gifts!!!
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