2nd Friday of Lent (March 1) A great company

Prepare to Listen.  Awesome is God in his sanctuary.
 
Prayerfully Read Psalm 68:4-6, 11-12a, 35
4Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
   lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds--
his name is the LORD--
   be exultant before him.
5Father of orphans and protector of widows
   is God in his holy habitation.
6God gives the desolate a home to live in;
   he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
   but the rebellious live in a parched land.
 11The Lord gives the command;
   great is the company of the women who bore the tidings:
   12‘The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee!’
 35Awesome is God in his sanctuary,
   the God of Israel;
   he gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
What surprised or challenged you in these few verses?
 
Psalm 68 is a long, somewhat disorganized psalm of exuberant praise for the mighty saving power of the LORD.  Handel chose to put one verse to music: “That Lord gave the word, great was the company of the preachers.”[1]  I don’t know why Handel chose this verse or why he included it in the section of his Messiah that focuses on Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection.  However, since the women (meaning of preachers) sang the tidings of God’s saving victory, it ought to make us reflect on the power of the cross, a major reason for praising God today.
 
Today’s reading begins with a call to sing praise to our Lord who is above all, riding “upon the clouds.”  This God seems beyond all human reach and control.  And yet, this almighty God is also “father of orphans and protector of widows,” providing a home for the “desolate” (i.e., the homeless and the alien), and leading “out the prisoners to prosperity.”  Prisoners stand for all who are oppressed and helpless.  The psalm, albeit indirectly points to Jesus whom we know claimed to have come for the vulnerable people the psalmist mentions—orphans, widows, desolate, prisoners.[2]  The cross of Jesus proclaims God’s nearness and great love and awesome power.  This is why we offer exuberant songs of praise, not merely on our own, but with a great company.
 
What do you think of this image of God?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, you are awesome and therefore I bless you, give you all that is your due, joining the company of those who spread the tidings of your great salvation.  Amen
 
Live obediently.  Bless the Lord.
[1] The King James says: “those that published it.”  The Hebrew term means women, as in footnote in the NRSV.  [2] Jesus in Luke 4:16-19, reading from Isaiah 61:1-2a.