Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 THE TELLING OF HOLY SURPRISES
Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name;
make known his deeds among the peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to him,
and speak of all his marvelous works.
Glory in his holy Name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Search for the Lord and his strength;
continually seek his face.
Remember the marvels he has done,
his wonders and the judgments of his mouth,
O offspring of Abraham his servant,
O children of Jacob his chosen.
He led out his people with silver and gold;
in all their tribes there was not one that stumbled.
Egypt was glad of their going,
because they were afraid of them.
He spread out a cloud for a covering
and a fire to give light in the night season.
They asked, and quails appeared,
and he satisfied them with bread from heaven.
He opened the rock, and water flowed,
so the river ran in the dry places.
For God remembered his holy word
and Abraham his servant.
So he led forth his people with gladness,
his chosen with shouts of joy.
He gave his people the lands of the nations,
and they took the fruit of others' toil,
That they might keep his statutes
and observe his laws.
Hallelujah!
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As we experience the psalms of praise, we see what intense activity praise entails. In English, we associate “thanks” and “praise” primarily with our voices: we express or say our thanks; proclaim or sing our praise. In biblical Hebrew, however, these are vital actions, engaging the entire person’s being. “Praising” – we have seen – is a radiating, a shining forth of inner light (“halo” and “hallelujah” are from the same root!).
This is an active, not a passive light – more like the shining of the sun than the reflection of the moon. The flame of our praise is a response to divine invitation; but it is a searing and consuming response, not a mere acknowledgement.
Similarly for “thanksgiving”: the word in Hebrew denotes a throwing action, vigorous and graceful – “casting” would be a good rendering. In English, we have “cast a shadow;” in Hebrew, in a real sense, we can say that praise and thanksgiving “cast a light.” In the Gospels, Jesus tells his disciples to “let your light shine forth;” this resonates with the sense of “thanksgiving” in the Hebrew Scriptures.
There is an additional aspect of praise that Psalm 105 defines for us: “tell the story of holy surprises! (vs. 2)” Some scholars highlight this “narrative theology” of the Psalms. Here, in Psalm 105, are vivid “tellings” from the history of Israel (whose name means “God-wrestler”).
The story-telling aspect of praise is of special importance to us today. In times of great suffering and anxiety, the foundational stories we tell about our spiritual lives can provide meaning, strength, and vision. In my rendering of these portions of Psalm 105, I focus on salient parts of this “saving narrative” – as it has been called. We are free to re-tell it, in radically new terms, in our own quest for sacred meaning and direction in our troubled present time.
Psalm 105: 1-5; 37-43
(Rendered from the Hebrew by Henry Ralph Carse)
Cast your light along the arc of sheer Becoming;
call out that never-spoken Name -
for earth-folks have their inner knowing
of nothing doing, nothing left undone.
Sing it all! Tell your story, full of holy surprises.
Become all flame, burn forth the Name,
with hearts for joyful seeking.
In your questing for Becoming find your strength,
seeking ever inner-ward.
Remember to wonder at what has become,
and to glimpse the bliss beyond all doing:
the saving signature inscribed
on the lips of all that is.
“God-wrestlers, we ventured out of Narrowland,
led forth by our Becoming -
gold and silver in our hands,
and not one of us would stumble!
And as we walked away, the Narrowlanders cheered,
so glad to see us up and gone,
taking our fearfulness with us!
Who shook out a blanket of hiding cloud for us,
who lit our way through the night with flame?
Who brought wings of calm whenever we asked,
who gave us our fill of heavenly bread?
Who cracked open the flinty rock,
and into the desert sent rivers flooding?
* * *
This is the One our story tells,
The One who is memory’s sacred word,
the One who has led us freely out:
our Joy and the Way we choose!”