3rd Sunday Year
Commentary by Dr Noel Donnelly
Psalm 18.8-15 Commentary
Have you ever consulted a Thesaurus when you’re looking for a different word for something? The writer of this psalm of course didn’t have a Thesaurus as we do but he seems highly chuffed in finding a variety of words to describe God’s Word or Law. He unites these discoveries in giving his first six lines the same pattern and rhythm. They are like rays bursting out from the Law, all giving honour and praise to the Word of God. For the psalmist God’s guiding Words do not consist in heavy impositions: “they revive the soul” and “give wisdom to the simple” in 8. “They gladden the heart and give light to the eyes” in verse 9; and “they are sweeter than honey fresh the comb” in verse 11. All very positive ways for stimulating the ways we relate to God.
But this psalm is not just about outward behaviour: it is an inner melody that goes on and is expressed as “the music of the heart” as verse 15 puts it. A lovely thought for cantors!
Psalm 18 is just perfect for this weekend when we celebrate “The Word of God Sunday!” In 2019 Pope Francis wrote in his apostolic letter Aperuit, “I hereby declare that the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the word of God.”
As usual, our psalm, which sings of the Law of God, links back to the first reading where Nehemiah presents the Law of God to the returning exiles; and it bridges forward to the Gospel where Jesus, a reader in the synagogue of Nazareth, tells the people that God’s Word, this time in Isaiah, has been fulfilled in him. He has been sent to give the Good News to the poor.
Today, when we sing, we’re acting as ministers of the Word for our congregation. In some places on The Word of God Sunday, the lectern is specially decorated and there is a blessing for all readers and cantors of the Word. In any case Pope Francis blesses us as he says in his apostolic letter Aperuit Illis, “May the Sunday of the Word of God help his people to grow in religious and intimate familiarity with the sacred Scriptures. For as the sacred author taught of old: ‘This word is very near to you: it is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance’” (Dt 30:14). On this, The Word of God Sunday, that psalm is a really stimulating call!
Ps 18: words (c) The Grail, England. Music Francis Duffy. Recorded by Helen Healy
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Ps 18: words and music (c) Noel Donnelly, St Mungo Music. Recorded by Grace Buckley.
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