Sunday 19th January 2025
1 To you our praise is due
in Zion, O God.
To you we pay our vows,
2 you who hear our prayer.
To you all flesh will come
3 with its burden of sin.
Too heavy for us, our offences,
but you wipe them away.
4 Blessed are those whom you choose and call
to dwell in your courts.
We are filled with the blessings of your house,
of your holy temple.
5 You keep your pledge with wonders,
O God our saviour,
the hope of all the earth
and of far distant isles.
6 You uphold the mountains with your strength,
you are girded with power.
7 You still the roaring of the seas,
(the roaring of their waves,)
and the tumult of the peoples.
8 The ends of the earth stand in awe
at the sight of your wonders.
The lands of sunrise and sunset
you fill with your joy.
9 You care for the earth, give it water;
you fill it with riches.
Your river in heaven brims over
to provide its grain.
And thus you provide for the earth;
10 you drench its furrows;
you level it, soften it with showers;
you bless its growth.
11 You crown the year with your goodness.
Abundance flows in your steps;
12 in the pastures of the wilderness it flows.
The hills are girded with joy,
13 the meadows covered with flocks,
the valleys are decked with wheat.
They shout for joy, yes they sing.
Reflection
This psalm has been taken up in a number of hymns across the years, particularly for harvest. For example by William Dix, a nineteenth-century Anglican, in Rejoice and Sing 53. Dix captured vv.12 and 13 in these lines:
Bright robes of gold the fields adorn,
the hills with joy are ringing,
the valleys stand so thick with corn
that even they are singing.
However, the psalm may have a more immediate message than harvest praise. Tomorrow is so-called Blue Monday, recognising a period of the year when the festive joy of December has receded, yet the weariness of winter still feels endless, featureless and hopeless. Days are dark and dismal and so, for many of us, are our spirits. How do we regain perspective, when a curtain of gloom covers the light? This psalm may offer some insights.
For the psalmist knew about the heavy burdens of sin and failure, about the roaring of the elements and ‘the tumult of the peoples’. Our own faults and frailties, the fierce power of storms and seas, and the anger and arrogance of people and nations – even these are answered by the pardon and peace, the tenderness and majesty of God (vv.3, 7). And even winter, grim and grasping, finds a place in the cycle of the year, whose meaning and destination are full with promise and joy (vv.12-13). The God we meet in prayer (vv.1-4) is ‘hope of the ends of the earth’, ruling over its seas, slopes and skies (vv.5-8). The same God rejoices to shape the seasons for plenty and for gladness (vv.9-13).
None of that takes all the blue out of Monday. But it does set this chilly hue in the rainbow of God’s faithfulness and generous purpose. We may go forward in safety and in hope.
Prayer
God of our prayers, God of great power, God of loving provision,
please help us to see the breadth and beauty of your work,
to know the gentle strength of your grace, even in dismal days,
to find your light, even when the world is dark,
and to trust your purpose, even when we cannot see it.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.