Candle breath
Thursday of Holy Week
13th April 2017
Tonight, the light begins to dim. Darkness encircles Jesus. It is night. And they, Jesus and his friends, go out into the garden singing psalms. What psalms might they have sung, I wonder?
What would Jesus have sung on this night of all nights, the night of his betrayal and arrest and trial and whipping and mocking and spitting and blindfolding and striking and stripping of humanity and bludgeoning of hope? We know that Psalm 22 is on his parched tongue as he gasps for breath on the cross.
But in the gentle breezes of the late evening, wandering between the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane, with a heavy heart, might Jesus have sung Psalm 121
What would Jesus have sung on this night of all nights, the night of his betrayal and arrest and trial and whipping and mocking and spitting and blindfolding and striking and stripping of humanity and bludgeoning of hope? We know that Psalm 22 is on his parched tongue as he gasps for breath on the cross.
But in the gentle breezes of the late evening, wandering between the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane, with a heavy heart, might Jesus have sung Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and for evermore.
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and for evermore.
As It's Passover I think he'll be singing one of the Passover psalms which are Ps 113 - 118, so I'm suggesting Ps116. However, maybe he turned to silence, as he entrusted his life to his Father, knowing the suffering that awaited him. Our Maundy Thursday service ended in silence as the altar was stripped bare, a moving symbolic act, in preparation for the events of Good Friday.
ReplyDeletePs 116:
I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
‘O Lord, I pray, save my life!’
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The Lord protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
I walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
I kept my faith, even when I said,
‘I am greatly afflicted’;
I said in my consternation,
‘Everyone is a liar.’
What shall I return to the Lord
for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his faithful ones.
O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving-maid.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
I've often found the Maundy Thursday service to be the most moving and meaningful service of the year and although it ends with stripping the altars it has a quality of rejoicing and even security. I know Jesus washes the disciples feet and institutes the Eucharist, but Jesus did and said challenging, unexpected even shocking things throughout his ministry. There was nothing new in that, maybe more intense than usual, but ...
ReplyDeleteBut the next part of the story, the intense and agonised prayer in the garden, the arrest, trials, flogging, mocking and finally crucifixion hurt, upset and frighten me. What if Jesus couldn't go through with it. He was truly human as well as truly God. Where would that leave me, us, the world?
What has never registered before is the singing and I'm wondering how on earth jesus was able to sing. Both the psalms suggested are really appropriate and I haven't found anything as good, but I have wondered whether Jesus sang whichever psalms it was over and over like we sing Taize chants, and found comfort in imprinting those words even more into his mind and memory.
I imagine that Jesus would have been too distressed to pray spontaneously. I agree with FEE in her choice of psalm that Jesus would have recited.
ReplyDeleteMy mother is a great believer in praising God. She taught us to praise God using words starting with "A" , going through the alphabet, ending in "Z".
Here are some verses that encourage us to praise God.
“He inhabits the praises of His people.” Ps. 22:3
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;" 1 Pet. 2:9
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” Ps. 103:2-4
"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." Heb. 13:15
Might Jesus also have praised God, in his time of sorrow, going through the Hebrew or Aramaic alphabet?