Br. Lain Wilson

Psalm 150

In a time of oppression and division, of political violence and fear, of extreme wealth inequality, of competing claims to truth, of state power brought to bear on the least powerful, I imagine that hearing and praying psalm 150 could be as stark and striking an experience as it is in our own time.

“Praise God in his holy temple; praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts; praise him for his excellent greatness.” (Ps 150:1-2)

There are any number of psalms that we can and do pray—songs of lament, of abandonment, of joy—songs expressing all that is possible to express in conversation with God, all that is needed to communicate to God all that is in our hearts as we encounter a world that seems so wrong.

And there’s no doubt that there is so much wrong with the world. The psalms give us the prayerful vocabulary to bring these wrongs before God.

Each psalm speaks to us in its own way. But this quintessential song of praise points to a substrate in our reality. Whatever we encounter and experience, however we may be divided, whatever we may lament, whatever we grieve—underneath all that is the truth of our common vocation, a truth St. Ignatius of Loyola asserts in his Spiritual Exercises: “The human person is created to praise, reverence, and serve God as Lord.” Even more strongly, this praise is the common vocation of all creatures, as we hear in our hymn today: “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise him, all creatures here below; praise him above, ye heavenly host: praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”[1]

In times of division and turmoil and fear, this fundamental truth of our common vocation calls us all to a unity that may seem, and frankly may be impossible in this life. But in this unmitigated praise of God, we can make present now the new creation inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Jesus, when all divisions are erased. In this unmitigated praise of God, we can experience now a foretaste of God’s promised future.

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah!” (Ps 150:6). Amen.

[1] The Hymnal 1982, no. 380, stanza 3 words by Thomas Ken (1637-1711).