Psalm 114 Commentary for Sunday 24B 
We use the first 6 verses of this 9-versed psalm in our weekend liturgy. There is much in the whole psalm about deliverance from death, from its snares, from the anguish of the tomb and all the sorrow and distress associated with it. There is a pitiful cry: “O Lord, my God! Deliver me!”
But verse 5 will go on to praise God for being so gracious and compassionate. There is a sincere hope that there is life beyond the grave, a belief that resurfaced more in the couple of centuries before Christ at the time of the Maccabean persecution. They felt that there was no point in undergoing martyrdom if there’s no future afterwards! Earlier than this, we find in the Book of Job the well known affirmation: “I know that my redeemer lives and that on the last day I will see him again!”
Now our psalmist seems to hold up his or her hands in this simple trust: “The Lord goes on protecting the simple; I was helpless and he saved me!” Therefore we expect the Lord to continue in this supporting way.
In verse 7 he asks the listener to look back at how the Lord has always been good and protected his feet from stumbling, so now he proclaims, “I WILL walk in the presence of God in the land of the living!” Our psalm follows the Isaian reading (one of the Suffering Servant Songs) about our saving vindicator being near at hand; it leads into the Gospel where Jesus, in spite Peter’s remonstrations, teaches how he is destined to to suffer grievously.
The psalm is a useful reminder of time as being the Sacrament of the Present Moment. A Notre Dame Sister once suggested to me that our outside door could be a reminder of this: every time we enter or exit we might recall the presence of God. Our Jewish friends even have a little metal box on the doorpost, a Mezusah, containing the Hebrew prayer the Shema: “hear O Israel: the Lord is One!”
Hebrews and Gentiles together let us walk, hand in hand, in the presence of the Lord!
Words and music © Noel S Donnelly. Recorded by Netta Ewing. Graphic (c) Netta Ewing.
