Psalm 24: 1st Sunday of Advent Year C with Commentary by Dr Noel Donnelly
Psalm 24 Commentary.
Psalm 24 is quite a long psalm. On this first weekend of Advent we use five of its 22 verses. The liturgical editor has selected verses about pathways as befits the start of our Advent journey.
It is one of the so-called “acrostic” psalms, where each line begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. While being a memory aid for the original singers, it is also a means to deliver us to the punchline at the end, for us a kind of A to Z into God’s teaching. The punchline in verses 21 and 22 at the end of this psalm is, in colloquial terms, “Lord. I’m relying on you. Don’t disappoint me!”
For the first Weekend of Advent in the new C cycle, the lectionary selects only 6 from the 22 verses of the whole psalm. These selected verses make a confident prayer for instructions from God on how to fulfil the love pact or covenant that God makes for us. These verses make a great prayer for the Advent way ahead: “Make me know Your ways Lord; teach me YOUR paths!”
The next stanza is not addressed to God, so the singer may look out to the congregation as he or she reminds them of the psalmist’s basic teaching: “The Lord is good and upright; guides those who have gone astray, guides the humble along the right path and teaches the poor his way”. All these words, ”your paths”, “the right path”, “pathways”, all give us a road map for direction and prayer in the Advent season ahead, trusting in God as our travelling companion.
In our weekend liturgy the psalm makes a bridge between the hope-filled reading from Jeremiah and the Gospel reading from Luke. Jeremiah sees the storm clouds ahead, with the threatening invasion of Babylonian troops towards Jerusalem, but he confidently relies that however dark those days may be, yet the promises of David will not fail. The Gospel will see the coming end of time as a time not of fear but of redemption! Our psalm-response repeats the confident prayer, “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul!”
We are also now beginning to use the Standard English Translation in the readings. The psalms will use the revised Grail translations.
We pray with the psalmist: “Lord, make me know your ways!” In trying to understand God’s ways, I am reminded of the saying of Maya Angelou the US civil rights leader, “Do the best you can until you know better. When you do know better then do better!” Lord, make me know your ways today!
Psalm 24: words and music Noel Donnelly (c) Kevin Mayhew. Sung by Noel Donnelly. Graphic of David the psalmist (c) Netta Ewing.
Psalm 24: Words (c) The Grail, England. Music (c) Gerry Fitzpatrick. Sung by Elspeth Glasgow.
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Ps 24 25 from the New Lectionary 2024
Music (c) Gerry Fitzpatrick. Recorded by Grace Buckley.
There is a certain wordiness in the text and the music should be unhurried – without being slow!
