Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 2-129 Sunday 30 Jun 2002

Reading: Psalm 129 – GREAT IS HIS LOVE

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

Have you come to pray and to learn? This alone proves how powerfully Christ is now at work within you.

The meaning of this shortest of psalms hinges on a simple yet provocative question: Who does it refer to as ‘us’? The psalm is addressed not to Israel, but to ‘all nations’ and ‘all peoples’: it calls all humanity to worship and exalt the one true God. Why? Because ‘great is his steadfast love toward us’ (NRSV). Who, then, is ‘us’?

It may refer to Israel and the church. If God’s people are ‘a light to the nations’ and ‘the light of the world'(Isa 42:6;Matt 5:14) then the nations will see God’s love demonstrated toward those who already call upon him, and so find their own reason to worship.

But God does not only love those who already love him. The prophet Amos, for example, declares that notwithstanding his favour toward Israel, God has saved other nations as well: ‘Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir?'(Amos 9:7) Indeed, as Jesus insists, God ’causes his sun to rise on both the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike'(Matt 5:45). This suggests a slightly different meaning for the psalm: that all nations will find reason to worship when they realise how great is God’s loving kindness toward us all.

Even so, not all people acknowledge the God who stands behind the good things they experience every day. Thus the task of those who do know God is to bear witness to the true source of such blessings. Our mission is one of calling others to gratitude, to recognition, and to worship of the God who loves ‘us’ all. For as John even more boldly declares, ‘from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.'(John 1:16 NRSV)

Who do you know that the Lord has already loved so richly that they will recognise his name the moment you speak it?

– Rev Dr Michael Knowles

Copyright Scripture Union, 2002

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