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The Psalms are my favorite book of the Bible. As an Anglican, I experience the Psalms as a heartbeat in my life, shaping the hours of the day whether spoken aloud or chanted to our beautiful old plainsong. More than their routine use in our liturgies, though, I love the Psalms because they tell us about what is real; that is, they make shocking and profound claims about reality that cause my soul to reverberate with the hum of being known even across these many generations.
The Psalms appointed for today, this first day of Advent, are all psalms of praise—each one begins with an exhortation: “Praise the Lord!” They are also songs of assurance—assurance that God will care for the psalmist and their community, that good will come for those who embody generosity and fidelity, that that peace and justice will abound in all corners of this earth. This assurance is not based in mere hope. The psalmist grounds claims of God’s provision in memories of God’s activity: “God has strengthened the bars of your gates, O Jerusalem, and blessed your children within your walls.” Because God is active within and around them (and us), because they have lived into the gifts of this activity, the people of God are assured that God’s grace will abound, and they can make songs of praise in thanksgiving.
Friends, such assurance is real, for us just as for the psalmist. What a wild and wonderful thing! I am not always so confident in my conviction of God’s abundant activity in my own life. This Advent, my hope is to be so confronted by the shocking realities of the Psalms that I cannot help but make my whole life an offering of praise. I hope you will too.
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