A Chosen Child

A Reflection on the Psalm for November 17th, 2019:
Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalm 98

R. The Lord is coming to judge the peoples with equity.

Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. R.

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the Lord. R.

For the Lord is coming, coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. R.

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I love singing the psalms at Mass. I used to be a cantor once upon a time and psalms like this would make me want to split open in joy when I sang them. I could hear in the back of my head the majesty of it all — a Wagnerian crashing of cymbals and tumultuous crescendo of sound from the orchestra. So loud it threatens to deafen me.


I don’t know if it’s because I’m wiser or because I was so innocent back then that I loved these triumphant psalms so much. The idea of God coming in all of His glory – and the very earth screeching for joy – is a sobering thought. I can’t gloss over that line that He is coming in righteous judgement. At the very thought of it, it’s difficult to rouse even a squeak of joy. I think of the plagues sent as a righteous judgement over Egypt. There was a noise from the people in those days, but the noise that came from the mouths of the Egyptians wasn’t a triumphant chorus of Hallelujahs! It was a wailing such as had never been heard.


I am tempted to fear that under all the clapping of the floods, the seas roaring, the hills singing, I will be found wanting – and wailing. Can I have the confidence of Miriam to sing on the other side of the Red Sea? Looking on myself, on my history, can I draw out my tambourine and sing praise to the God who has cast down the mighty from their thrones and drawn up the lowly? Or am I that mighty one who will be cast down? Do I have the certainty of a chosen child of Abraham that when the Lord comes He is on my side?


I know I am not righteous. I can list a hundred things I’ve done today alone that fell far short of God’s desire for me. I am selfish. I am wrathful. I am prideful. But I am something else: I am a daughter of the Most High King. I am a daughter of this God who is coming amid so much sound and wonder. I know I will not be enough. I know up until the moment He arrives I will be shamefully persisting in my sin. I also know that, like the Hebrew families in Egypt, I have washed the doorposts of my life with the blood of the Unblemished Lamb. Even when I am uncertain, fearful and little, God sees me as His daughter. So I can join the mighty chorus. I can put aside my fear. I am Him.
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​Stephanie Potter

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