Psalm 125 with commentary by Dr Noel Donnelly 
Psalm 125 is quite a short song of six verses so it is quoted in full on the thirtieth Sunday of Year B (27th October). There is a sense that the liturgical Year is coming to a close. We will have had 33 Sunday liturgies before the Feast of Christ the King on 24th November and the start of the new lectionary in Advent. We can look back and sing with full hearts, “What marvels the Lord has worked for us!” “Even the heathens can see this!” says the psalmist. We are invited to be grateful as the harvest of fruitful sheaves of our past year is carried towards a new Advent. We are invited to pinch ourselves that this is real, for it is so good that it seemed like a dream. Not only are we to be grateful but to express this in the fullness of our singing. “They come back filled with laughter”, full of song, counting their blessings as they carry the fruits of their labour, heartily appreciating the very gifts of the Lord. The song is performed in hope of deliverance from bondage, looking for streams in any surrounding dry land.
The psalm echoes the first reading from the prophetic hope of Jeremiah, uttered confidently as Jerusalem faced destruction: “The blind and the lame had left in tears but I will lead them to streams of water!” sings the confident prophet!
Our song leads to the Gospel which describes the healing of the blind Bartimaeus and the foreign woman with the haemorrhage. Stubborn faith is rewarded.
We move in these readings towards an appreciative ending to our using of the old Lectionary. The new Lectionary with its use of the Standard English translation starts in December. For the psalms however, the Grail translation continues.
Ps 125: words (c) The Grail, England. Music (c) Gerry Fitzpatrick. Recorded by Helen Healy. Graphic (c) Netta Ewing.
