Another Psalm I read quite frequently from reading the Liturgy of the Hours is Psalm 24 (or maybe this is true only through the Lent season). This Psalm is sometimes used to refute the Protestant teaching on Salvation by Faith Alone (Sola Fide). Dr. David Anders (a convert from Calvinism to Catholicism) from the EWTN program Called to Communion has this to say:
(Taken from comment 139 in "The Witness of the “Lost Christianities”")
That’s not what Scripture says:
Romans 2:13: “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” (Romans 2:13);
James 2:24: “You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.”
Romans 13:8: “whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”
1 John 3:7: “The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Psalm 24: 3: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.”
Catholic Answers has a good article on Faith and Works. The opening comment is important:
"“Protestants believe in faith alone, while Catholics believe in faith and works.” You hear both Protestants and Catholics say this all the time. But it’s a misleading oversimplification. If you tell a typical Evangelical, “You believe in faith alone, but we Catholics believe in faith and works,” you will cause him to think that the Catholic Church teaches something that, in fact, it says is false."
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is rich in its teaching on Grace and Justification:
A few points taken from the In Brief section:
2017 The grace of the Holy Spirit confers upon us the righteousness of God. Uniting us by faith and Baptism to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, the Spirit makes us sharers in his life.
2018 Like conversion, justification has two aspects. Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, and so accepts forgiveness and righteousness from on high.
2020 Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ. It is granted us through Baptism. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who justifies us. It has for its goal the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life. It is the most excellent work of God's mercy.
2022 The divine initiative in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of man. Grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom, calls freedom to cooperate with it, and perfects freedom.
2024 Sanctifying grace makes us "pleasing to God." Charisms, special graces of the Holy Spirit, are oriented to sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. God also acts through many actual graces, to be distinguished from habitual grace which is permanent in us.
2025 We can have merit in God's sight only because of God's free plan to associate man with the work of his grace. Merit is to be ascribed in the first place to the grace of God, and secondly to man's collaboration. Man's merit is due to God.
2029 "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mt 16:24).
The Psalm itself is quite easy to memorize (only 10 verses!). The most important reminder of living out our faith is found in verses 3 and 4, and the most beautiful call to worship is found in verses 7-10.
1 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
2 for he has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
4 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
5 They will receive blessing from the Lord,
and vindication from the God of their salvation.
6 Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
7 Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is the King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory.
Friday 16 March 2018
Friday 9 March 2018
O that today you would listen to his voice: harden not your hearts - revisit
I wrote this blog in November 2014. My spiritual journey has had a dramatic change since then. My renewed Catholic faith encourages me to read the Liturgy of the Hours from the Divine Office to begin my day. I have only been able to do the Office of Readings in the mornings consistently. So today - Friday of the 3rd week of Lent, I began with the usual Invitational Psalm. The antiphon "O that today you would listen to his voice: harden not your hearts." is from Psalm 95. Yes, I always begin my day with this Call to Worship and Obedience from Psalm 95. Why is it so important to begin my day with this Psalm?
Charles Spurgeon, the famous Protestant bible teacher, wrote this lovely introduction to Psalm 95:
"This Psalm has no title, and all we know of its authorship is that Paul quotes it as "in David." (Heb 4:7.) ... It is in its original a truly Hebrew song, directed both in its exhortation and warning to the Jewish people, but we have the warrant of the Holy Spirit in the epistle to the Hebrews for using its appeals and entreaties when pleading with Gentile believers. It is a psalm of invitation to worship. It has about it a ring like that or church bells, and like the bells it sounds both merrily and solemnly, at first ringing out a lively peal, and then dropping into a funeral knell as if tolling at the funeral of the generation which perished in the wilderness. We will call it THE PSALM OF THE PROVOCATION. "
The Psalm can be divided into two sections:
(I) Invitation with Reasons (Verses 1-5)
O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
(Verse 1) The author of this song had in his mind's eye the rock, the tabernacle, the Red Sea, and the mountains of Sinai, and he alludes to them all in this first part of his hymn. God is our abiding, immutable, and mighty rock, and in him we find deliverance and safety, therefore it becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship. (Verse 2) The perfection of singing is that which unites joy with gravity, exultation with humility, fervency with sobriety - thus we are reminded "let us make a joyful noise" twice. (Verses 3-5) These verses supply some of the reasons for worship, drawn from the being, greatness, and sovereign dominion of the Lord.
(II) Invitation with Warnings (Verses 6-11)
O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tested me,
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not regard my ways.”
Therefore in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
But what is this warning which follows? Alas, it was sorrowfully needed by the Lord's ancient people, and is not one which the less required by ourselves. The favored nation grew deaf to their Lord's command, and proved not to be truly his sheep, of whom it is written, "My sheep hear my voice:" will this turn out to be our character also. God forbid. "To day if you will hear his voice." Dreadful "if." Many would not hear, they put off the claims of love, and provoked their God. "To-day," in the hour of grace, in the day of mercy, we are tried as to whether we have an ear for the voice of our Creator. Nothing is said of tomorrow, "he limited a certain day," he presses for immediate attention, for our own sake he asks instantaneous obedience. Shall we yield it? The Holy Spirit says "To-day," will we grieve him by delay? We cannot soften our hearts, but we can harden them, and the consequences will be fatal. Today is too good a day to be profaned by the hardening of our hearts against our own mercies. While mercy reigns let not obduracy rebel. "As in the provocations, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness" (or, "like Meribah, like the day of Massah in the wilderness"). Be not willfully, wantonly, repeatedly, obstinately rebellious. Let the example of that unhappy generation serve as a beacon to you; do not repeat the offenses which have already more than enough provoked the Lord.
"These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come." (1 Corinthians 10:11)
Charles Spurgeon, the famous Protestant bible teacher, wrote this lovely introduction to Psalm 95:
"This Psalm has no title, and all we know of its authorship is that Paul quotes it as "in David." (Heb 4:7.) ... It is in its original a truly Hebrew song, directed both in its exhortation and warning to the Jewish people, but we have the warrant of the Holy Spirit in the epistle to the Hebrews for using its appeals and entreaties when pleading with Gentile believers. It is a psalm of invitation to worship. It has about it a ring like that or church bells, and like the bells it sounds both merrily and solemnly, at first ringing out a lively peal, and then dropping into a funeral knell as if tolling at the funeral of the generation which perished in the wilderness. We will call it THE PSALM OF THE PROVOCATION. "
The Psalm can be divided into two sections:
(I) Invitation with Reasons (Verses 1-5)
O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
(Verse 1) The author of this song had in his mind's eye the rock, the tabernacle, the Red Sea, and the mountains of Sinai, and he alludes to them all in this first part of his hymn. God is our abiding, immutable, and mighty rock, and in him we find deliverance and safety, therefore it becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship. (Verse 2) The perfection of singing is that which unites joy with gravity, exultation with humility, fervency with sobriety - thus we are reminded "let us make a joyful noise" twice. (Verses 3-5) These verses supply some of the reasons for worship, drawn from the being, greatness, and sovereign dominion of the Lord.
(II) Invitation with Warnings (Verses 6-11)
O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tested me,
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not regard my ways.”
Therefore in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
But what is this warning which follows? Alas, it was sorrowfully needed by the Lord's ancient people, and is not one which the less required by ourselves. The favored nation grew deaf to their Lord's command, and proved not to be truly his sheep, of whom it is written, "My sheep hear my voice:" will this turn out to be our character also. God forbid. "To day if you will hear his voice." Dreadful "if." Many would not hear, they put off the claims of love, and provoked their God. "To-day," in the hour of grace, in the day of mercy, we are tried as to whether we have an ear for the voice of our Creator. Nothing is said of tomorrow, "he limited a certain day," he presses for immediate attention, for our own sake he asks instantaneous obedience. Shall we yield it? The Holy Spirit says "To-day," will we grieve him by delay? We cannot soften our hearts, but we can harden them, and the consequences will be fatal. Today is too good a day to be profaned by the hardening of our hearts against our own mercies. While mercy reigns let not obduracy rebel. "As in the provocations, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness" (or, "like Meribah, like the day of Massah in the wilderness"). Be not willfully, wantonly, repeatedly, obstinately rebellious. Let the example of that unhappy generation serve as a beacon to you; do not repeat the offenses which have already more than enough provoked the Lord.
"These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come." (1 Corinthians 10:11)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)