If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this, and the introduction to the Psalms for this book of the Bible in particular.
8 July. Psalms 66-69
Psalm 66 can be summarised by three words: “Turn (verses 1-4), Trust (5-12), Thank (13-20)”. It speaks of the importance of keeping one’s vows to God. We don’t often talk of vows these days, except at a wedding, but monks and clergy still have to vow obedience to their abbot/bishop, as well as obedience to the rules of their order or denomination, and may also be required to take vows of poverty and/or chastity. These are no idle promises, and many struggle with them at times in their ministry, and need the support of their brothers and sisters in their orders, or (in the case of parish priests) their congregation.
The vows mentioned here, though, are the voluntary promises of thanking and praising God (and other people) that are made by individuals. There is no religious law requiring such vows, but once made they are to be treated just as seriously. They spring out of the experience of seeing God at work.
Psalm 67 is one of the shortest, but most radiant of them all. It is entirely positive about our relationship with God. The first verse is much used in liturgy (perhaps with variants): “May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face to shine upon us” (67:1). The following Psalm 68 is, by contrast, much longer and full of references to enemies.
Psalm 69 contains several verses that are taken as pointing to Jesus and his crucifixion: “many are those who would destroy me, my enemies who accuse me falsely” (v.4); “I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children” (8); and most of all “For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (21). But of course such experiences are not uncommon. What we do know is that Jesus, by his own suffering, can identify with all those who experience such treatment themselves.