The Delightful Book
of the Psalms
Although
the whole of Scripture breathes God’s grace upon us, this is especially true of
that delightful book, the book of the psalms. Moses, when he related the deeds
of the patriarchs, did so in a plain and unadorned style. But when he had
miraculously led the people of Israel across the Red Sea, when he had seen King
Pharaoh drowned with all his army, he transcended his own skills (just as the
miracle had transcended his own powers) and he sang a triumphal song to the
Lord. Miriam the prophetess herself took up a timbrel and led the others in the
refrain: Sing to the Lord: he has covered himself in glory, horse and
rider he has thrown into the sea.
History
instructs us, the law teaches us, prophecy foretells, correction punishes,
morality persuades; but the book of psalms goes further than all these. It is
medicine for our spiritual health. Whoever reads it will find in it a medicine
to cure the wounds caused by his own particular passions. Whoever studies it
deeply will find it a kind of gymnasium open for all souls to use, where the
different psalms are like different exercises set out before him. In that
gymnasium, in that stadium of virtue, he can choose the exercises that will
train him best to win the victor’s crown.
If
someone wants to study the deeds of our ancestors and imitate the best of them,
he can find a single psalm that contains the whole of their history, a complete
treasury of past memories in just one short reading.
If
someone wants to study the law and find out what gives it its force (it is the
bond of love, for whoever loves his neighbour has fulfilled the
law) let him read in the psalms how love led one man to undergo great
dangers to wipe out the shame of his entire people; and this triumph of virtue
will lead him to recognise the great things that love can do.
And as
for the power of prophecy – what can I say? Other prophets spoke in
riddles. To the psalmist alone, it seems, God promised openly and clearly that
the Lord Jesus would be born of his seed: I promise that your own son will
succeed you on the throne.
Thus
in the book of psalms Jesus is not only born for us: he also accepts his saving
passion, he dies, he rises from the dead, he ascends into heaven, he sits at
the Father’s right hand. The Psalmist announced what no other prophet had dared
to say, that which was later preached by the Lord himself in the Gospel.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours
– Office of Readings
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