Advent 4
Preaching
Hear My Voice
Preaching The Lectionary Psalms for Cycles A, B, C
(See Proper 11/Pentecost 9/Ordinary Time 16, Cycle B, for an alternative approach to vv. 20-37.)
If you read only the verses from Psalm 89 designated by the lectionary for today, you may well see 89 as a royal psalm, perhaps even used as a hymn during a ritual of enthronement of a Davidic king. A reading of the whole psalm, especially verse 38ff, however, shows that it is more a communal lament, written at a time when the continuity of the royal line of David was in doubt. Still, the portion selected by the lectionary editors for today focuses on God's promise of the throne belonging continually to David's line (actually the reading should not stop at v. 26, but should go all the way to 37). Thus, the psalm can also be read as a messianic text, with the promised one coming from the house of Judah.
It is unlikely that most preachers will choose to preach from the psalter rather than the gospel or the epistle on this Sunday before Christmas Day -- and not just because the latter are more directly applicable. The harder issue is that the psalm asks us to consider the bloodline of the Messiah -- whereas, for most Americans, one's ancestral line has little meaning. We have, probably quite rightly, learned to evaluate people on their own performance and track record rather than how well or ill their great-grandparents did. Indeed, some of us have little knowledge about our own relatives that far back.
Those who are going to base a sermon on this psalm do well to admit up front that we aren't much moved by lineage. In fact, this psalm functions in Advent readings only to show that the Incarnation was the fulfillment of a divine promise made centuries earlier. So this psalm, read by us after the first coming of Jesus, invites us to understand Christmas as concrete evidence of God keeping promises. Clearly the New Testament writers understand Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise and view Christians as the inheritors of that promise. When we are convinced of that, we can live our lives in a context of ultimate optimism and confidence.
-- S. P.
If you read only the verses from Psalm 89 designated by the lectionary for today, you may well see 89 as a royal psalm, perhaps even used as a hymn during a ritual of enthronement of a Davidic king. A reading of the whole psalm, especially verse 38ff, however, shows that it is more a communal lament, written at a time when the continuity of the royal line of David was in doubt. Still, the portion selected by the lectionary editors for today focuses on God's promise of the throne belonging continually to David's line (actually the reading should not stop at v. 26, but should go all the way to 37). Thus, the psalm can also be read as a messianic text, with the promised one coming from the house of Judah.
It is unlikely that most preachers will choose to preach from the psalter rather than the gospel or the epistle on this Sunday before Christmas Day -- and not just because the latter are more directly applicable. The harder issue is that the psalm asks us to consider the bloodline of the Messiah -- whereas, for most Americans, one's ancestral line has little meaning. We have, probably quite rightly, learned to evaluate people on their own performance and track record rather than how well or ill their great-grandparents did. Indeed, some of us have little knowledge about our own relatives that far back.
Those who are going to base a sermon on this psalm do well to admit up front that we aren't much moved by lineage. In fact, this psalm functions in Advent readings only to show that the Incarnation was the fulfillment of a divine promise made centuries earlier. So this psalm, read by us after the first coming of Jesus, invites us to understand Christmas as concrete evidence of God keeping promises. Clearly the New Testament writers understand Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise and view Christians as the inheritors of that promise. When we are convinced of that, we can live our lives in a context of ultimate optimism and confidence.
-- S. P.
