The Beloved is our refuge and our strength,
a Loving Presence in times of trouble.
therefore we need not fear though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam, through the mountains tremble with its tumult.
There is a river whose streams make glad the Holy City,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
The Beloved is in the midst of it, it shall not be moved;
Our loving Creator is an ever-present help.
The nations may be at war, countries left in ruins,
yet is the Voice of the Almighty heard, slowly breaking though hearts of stone.
The Beloved is ever with us, the infinite Heart of Love.
Come, behold the words of the Beloved,
how love does reign even in humanity’s desolation.
For the Beloved yearns for wars to cease, shining light not fearful hearts;
loving even those who oppress the weak, refining hearts of steel!
“Be still and know that I am Love. Awaken! Befriend justice and mercy;
Do you not know you bear my Love? Who among you will respond?”
O Blessed One, You know all hearts,
You are ever with us; may Love ever guide our lives!
Nan C. Merrill Psalms for Praying
Reflection:
Almighty God, end the wars. Destroy the weapons of war: break bows, shatter spears, burn shields with fire, turn bombs into energy powering the way forward, redirect drones to drop food for the starving. For the love of all that is good, feed the children!
Holy God, break our hearts of steel. Refine us into tools for justice and mercy. Push out our fears and let love reign. Unite with us. Move us to action; feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, releasing the captives, healing the wounded, and loving all of God’s children.
Check out other psalm reflections in the links below or find more of my writing published in Presbyterian Outlook or listen to my experiments in podcasting on the Period Pastor Podcast. Follow me @periodpastor
I began writing Psalm reflections during Lent of 2020. Shortly after, we decided to close the church building, work from home, and worship via zoom. Many churches use the Revised Common Lectionary (RLC) that rotates scripture on a three-year cycle (A, B, and C). Starting in Advent 2019, the church decided to worship with the texts from Year D, which is still not circulated as are years A, B, and C. Year D was created with the goal of including scriptures that were left out or not used as frequently as others. While we were using Psalms in year D, most other lectionary followers were using Year A. In Advent of 2020 we rejoined those who use the lectionary in year B. Advent of 2021 year C. When we returned to in person worship, we took the psalm reflections out of the order of worship. I continued to write them for the blog. Advent of 2022 year A. I left church work in July of 2023 but continued the practice of writing psalm reflections. Advent of 2023 year B.
I use the Vanderbilt Divinity Library’s resource for lectionary readings to make text selections.
1st Sunday in Advent Psalm 25, 2nd Sunday in Advent instead of a Psalm the lectionary gives Luke 1:68-79, 3rd Sunday in Advent instead of a Psalm the lectionary gives Isaiah 12:2-6, 4th Sunday in Advent Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 80, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day Psalm 96, Psalm 97, Psalm 98, 1st Sunday after Christmas, Psalm 148, New Year’s Day Psalm 8, 2nd Sunday after Christmas Psalm 147, Epiphany Psalm 72, 1st Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 29, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 36, 3rd Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 19, 4th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 71, 5th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 138, 6th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 1, 7th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 37, Transfiguration Sunday (Sunday before Lent) Psalm 99
Lent: Ash Wednesday Psalm 51, 1st Sunday in Lent Psalm 91, 2nd Sunday in Lent Psalm 27, 3rd Sunday in Lent Psalm 63, 4th Sunday in Lent Psalm 32, 5th Sunday in Lent Psalm 126, 6th Sunday in Lent (Palm or Passion Sunday) Psalm 118 or 31
Easter: Easter Psalm 118 or Psalm 114, 2nd Sunday of Easter Psalm 118 or Psalm 150, 3rd Sunday of Easter Psalm 30, 4th Sunday of Easter Psalm 23 or 114, 5th Sunday of Easter Psalm 148, 6th Sunday of Easter Psalm 67 or 109, Ascension Psalm 47 or Psalm 93, 7th Sunday of Easter Psalm 97 or Psalm 2, Day of Pentecost Psalm 104
Season After Pentecost (Ordinary Time): 1st Sunday after Pentecost (Trinity Sunday) Psalm 8, 2nd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 or Psalm 22, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 77 or Psalm 16, 4th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 30 or Psalm 66, 5th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 82 or Psalm 25, 6th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 52 or Psalm 15, 7thSunday after Pentecost Psalm 85 or Psalm 138, 8th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 107 or Psalm 49, 9th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 50 or Psalm 33, 10th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 80 or Psalm 82, 11th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 71or Psalm 103, 12th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 81 or Psalm 112, 13th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 139 or Psalm 1, 14thSunday after Pentecost Psalm 14 or Psalm 51, 15th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 79 or Psalm 113, 16th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 91 or Psalm 146, 17th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 137 or Psalm 37, 18th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 66 or Psalm 111, 19th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 119 or Psalm 121, 20th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 65 or Psalm 84, 21st Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 119 or Psalm 32, 22nd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 145 or Psalm 98 or Psalm 17, 23rdSunday after Pentecost Psalm 98, 24th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 46.
Sources and notes:
“Psalm 46 is the first of the songs of Zion, hymns that feature the importance and meaning of Jerusalem in the LORD’s relation to his people and world. It is the biblical text for Marin Luther’s famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Both psalm and hymn celebrate the confidence the the people of God may have in his help because of his choice to be with them: in the psalm through his presence in the City of God, in the hymn through his presence in Christ.”Mays p. 182
“Much of the song employs language that is cryptic in its elusiveness. The language is drawn from a vision of cosmos and history that turns on the faith that the LORD as king of the universe has chosen jerusalem as his capital to represent his reign in the world.” Mays p. 183
“Faith makes one unafraid. Concern and caution may persist, but for those who make the confusion, trust prevails.” Mays p. 183
“Zion is the City of God, which the Most High has made holy by choosing it as his dwelling, the place on earth that represents his divine rule as symbol of capitol and palace.” Mays p. 184
“The City of God, even in its temporal local manifestation, remains a transcendental reality. It exists in temporal, local dimension purely and simply in that God chooses to dwell with mortals.” Mays p. 185
“Psalm 46 is not a song about an impregnable city of God, a metropolis of security founded in the world to exempt its inhabitants from the dangers of history. Its true subject is the God who will help the people in whose midst he has chosen to be and who for a time chose Jerusalem and its temple as the locale of his “dwelling.” The song does not invite trust in a place but in a Presence who will to dwell with people.” Mays p. 185
“In the midst of the cosmic and human chaos of Psalm 46, the voice of Israel’s warrior God melts the earth and brings war to a halt. Rabbinic interpreters saw the battles preceding the Messianic Age in the poetry of Psalm 46. Martin Luther used the imagery of this psalm to sing of Jesus’ battle against the Prince of Darkness in the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God. …. The context of this refuge is not battle and war, as the Rabbis and Luther’s hymn would have it, but rather the end of war and the destruction of weapons, as Psalm 46:9 asserts. This is good news for women, children, and men everywhere.” W p. 35
“Many classify Psalm 46 as a song of Zion, though no explicit mention is made of Jerusalem or Zion (a frequent poetic name for Jerusalem and for the temple mount area); other possible Zion psalms include 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 122, and 132.” W p. 36
“Zion is stable because of God’s presence and the presence of God’s agent on earth, the king (see Pss 2:6-7; 89:19-37). The river whose streams gladden the city of God (v. 4) reinforces this sense of stability. Here the ambivalent value of water seen in Psalm 42-43 again appears. Water is an agent of joy and sustaining power for those inside the city but a symbol of chaos for those outside it.” W p. 27
“Verse 8 commands nature and nations to behold “desolations” this Warrior King God has brought. The word for “desolation” occurs only here in the form of a plural of intensity, showing that divine power is greater than human power to destroy. Instead of the expected list of God’s destructive actions, however, this command is followed by the surprising declaration in v. 9 that God “makes wars cease” and destroys all the weapons of war. This warrior wages peace and “is superlative in this role.” We are surprised by this usage, perhaps boucle we can no longer imagine a world without war. The outrage expressed by some toward John Lennon’s song “Imagine” comes to mind in this connection.” W pp. 38-39
“The security Psalm 46 imagines is based on God’s stabilizing, nurturing presence rather than weaponry and war. Throughout human time, war has cruelly victimized women and children. Nowhere is this more clear than in Judges 4-5, the story of the judge Deborah, the Kenite woman Jael, and the mother of Sizer, the Canaanite general against whom Deborah urges Israel to battle. Jael must become a “seductive killer” (5:24) to survive, and the worried other awaiting her general son’s return assumes that he is gathering spoils of war: “a womb, two wombs” (5:30). She reduces the women of the enemy to their reproductive organs as she envisions their rape. These women “approve of or commit violet acts to help their men to become victorious. They serve a patriarchal agenda and do not seek its subversion.” Psalm 46 makes this kind of dehumanizing relationship among sisters unnecessary. Nations are to drop their weapons and stop warring, as God commands in 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God!” The NRSV translation misses the point of God’s action; “desist” might better express what is at stake (the word is hiphil , “lead off, abandon, stop”). W p. 39
Women and War by Audrey Coretta Price found in Wisdom Commentary pp. 39-40: “Psalm 46 beckons us to reflect on the immeasurable and generational suffering experience by women of color because of the brutal, inhumane “war” of slaver, servitude, patriarchy, and machismo. This “war” is fought with the weaponry of marginalization and oppression and dehumanizes its victims. Psalm 46 proclaims that “God is our refuge.” How is “refuge” experienced for African, Latina, African American, or Caribbean women who continue to be classified as ugly creatures and as property, solely because of their racial heritage? God’s refuge is not simply comfort for these women while they are ravaged by war. Rather, God’s refuge is the end of ward and the destruction of dehumanizing weapons. Exploited, despised poor women of color, Shawn Copeland suggests, are the new anthropological subject. When oppressors acknowledge this, they can then recognize and affirm the human dignity of God’s precious creation, which also bears the imprint of God, the iago Dei. “The realization of humanity… of personhood… rooted in religious, intellectual, and moral conversion” is refuge that facilitates the cessation of war. This realization challenges oppressors to destroy their weapons of war-racism, sexism, classism. Then and only then will women of color experience holistically God’s healing refuge, so that the spiritual, emotional, and psychological wounds of battle may heal.”
“For God to be “exalted” (v. 10), nations must stop the violence toward one another ran toward their own people.” W p. 40
“Psalm 46 is representative: The Songs of Zion are uncompromising in their conviction about the temple and the city. The big problem of the Old Testament, however, is that historical events turned out otherwise. It turned out, given the vulnerability of Jerusalem and the aggressiveness of the Babylonian army, that Jerusalem was conquered and restored (see 1kgs. 24-25). The historical experience of defeat contradicted the grandiose claims of liturgy. But Israel tells the truth about its life. For that reason, alongside the celebrative “Songs of Zion,” there is a second set of cold, hard psalms that we might call the “revised, No Longer Celebrative Songs of Zion,” revised in light of historical experience. Of course these psalms are not commonly called that, and they are not much used these days. But Psalms 74 and 79, for example, are poetic acknowledgement that the city and the temple have been destroyed. We may take these psalms as a countertop to the “Songs of Zion” so that there is in Israel’s faith and liturgy a dialectic between glorious Zion celebrated and defeated Zion grieved. Israel finally will not deny historical reality, even if we prefer to engage in such denial by our unwillingness to utilize these very psalms.” Brueggemann, From Whom No Secrets are Hid, p. 82
Alter, Robert. 2007. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary New York: W. W. Norton & Company
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Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1974. Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible. 8th ed. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Press.
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Brueggemann, Walter. 2007. Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Cascade.
Brueggemann, Walter. 2014. From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms. Edited by Brent A. Strawn. 1st ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
Brueggemann, Walter. Davis Hanskins, Editor. 2022. Our Hearts Wait: Worshiping Through Praise and Lament in the Psalms Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville KY.
Brueggemann, Walter. (2002). Spirituality of the psalms. Augsburg Pub. House.
Brueggemann, Walter. (1984). The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg.
Chilson, Richard, ed. You Shall Not Want: A Spiritual Journey Based on the Psalms. Ave Maria Press, 2009.
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McCann, J. C. (1993). A theological introduction to the book of Psalms: The Psalms as Torah. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
McCann, J. C., & Howell, J. C. 2001. Preaching the Psalms. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
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Miller, Patrick D. 1986. Interpreting the Psalms. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press.
Morgan, Michael. 2010. The Psalter for Christian Worship Revised Edition. Westminster John Knox Press.
Schlimm, Matthew Richard. 2018. 70 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know. Nashville, TN: Abington Press.
Spong, M. (Ed.). (2020). The words of her mouth: Psalms for the struggle. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press.
WBC Tate, Marvin E. 1990. Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 51-100. Edited by David Allan. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker. Vol. 20. Waco, TX: Word.
Weems, Ann. 1995. Psalm of Lament. Westminster John Knox Pres
OTL Weiser, Artur. 1998. Old Testament Library: Psalms. Translated by Herbert Hartwell. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Manchester University Press.
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