Ps 102 with Commentary for Easter 7B by Dr Noel Donnelly
When we sing Psalm 102 in the liturgy this weekend, we are selecting 6 verses from the 22 of the whole psalm. That number of 22 is also the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet and may have guided the writer, though each line doesn’t start with a successive letter any more. That reminds us of the on-going care and editing, perhaps simplifying or adapting things to circumstances as time goes on.
The whole psalm is a song of praise for the compassion of God, for the blessings received, perhaps through a recent crisis in the life of the poet.
The singer is affirming enthusiastically that the most important thing to know about God is God’s constant merciful love. “The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy”, says verse 8; “a compassionate father”, as verse 13 puts it. Those two words “father” and “compassion” are even more amazing today when we consider this father to be the creator of the enormous universe with its twenty or thirty trillion galaxies!
But this infinite God in our psalm is not remote and impersonal: the full Psalm 102 declares four times that this compassionate God is someone who acts from beyond the enormous universe and right into the particular circumstances of the psalmist: this God “forgives all our guilt” and “heals every one of your ills”, (verse 3); “restores life from the grave” and “crowns you with love and compassion”, ( verse 4). Just imagine such a personal crowning scene for a moment! The crowning of a king was accompanied with a very personal anointing with holy oil. A commissioning with royal dignity is formally and very personally established in this touching crowning! Let’s remember that we have been so personally touched, anointed, in our Baptism and Confirmation.
In our Eastertide liturgy, our psalm stresses the heavenly rule of God. Our repeated response stresses this as we sing, “The Lord has set his sway in heaven!” But it is a powerful sway that removes our sins “as far as the East is from West!” That’s an infinite distance!
In the context of our psalm, Pope Francis often reminds us of God’s compassion: he says, “Compassion is the language spoken by God and the lens through which God looks at us”. Psalm 102 should surely cheers us up: we have a compassionate Father not a fault-finding one. Our psalm ends with a bold invitation: “Give thanks to the Lord all his angels!” We are not alone in our thanksgiving!
Above: audio of commentary for Sunday Easter 7B
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Words (c) The Grail, England. Music (c) Gerry Fitzpatrick. Recorded by Sally Mulholland.
Words and music (c) Noel Donnelly.
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