Psalms 135 and 136 are both litanies. The primary difference between them is that Psalm 136 uses only response. Robert Alter’s translation of that response is:
for His kindness is forever.
In TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures, the response is:
His steadfast love is eternal.
Psalms 135 and 136 praise God, the Creator, active in history. They recall God’s mighty acts of deliverance. One may reasonably imagine a postexilic Temple liturgy as returned exiles struggled to rebuild their lives in their ancestral homeland. As they recalled what God had done, they waited for what God would do next. Some of the people praying did so impatiently; why had God not done more and done it sooner?
Psalm 138, an individual prayer, shares a link with Psalm 136. Psalm 138:8 reads:
The LORD will settle accounts for me.
O LORD, Your steadfast love is eternal;
do not forsake the work of Your hands.
—TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures
This prayer follows praise of God and remembrance of deliverance from enemies of God. The psalmist needs rescue again.
Why has God not done more and done it sooner? Why is divine deliverance necessary again? This is the tension in which many individuals, families, congregations, and communities live. Yet we recall what God has done and hope for what God will do next. Such impatience is predictable. I know the feeling of such impatience. Perhaps you, O reader, know it, also. Such impatience does not constitute an offense in my theology; it recurs throughout the Psalter and finds a relative in the Book of Job. The spiritual issue which demands attention is what we do with it. Do we, like Job and the Psalter, take it to God? If so, we handle this impatience properly.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
FEBRUARY 21, 2023 COMMON ERA
SHROVE TUESDAY
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST-CARDINAL
THE FEAST OF SAINT ARNULF OF METZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; AND SAINT GERMANUS OF GRANFEL, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND MARTYR, 677
THE FEAST OF HENRY JOHN GAUNTLETT, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF SAINT ROBERT SOUTHWELL, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1595
THE FEAST OF SAINT THOMAS PORMORT, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1592
According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
One may use the word “mystery” in at least two ways. One may think of a situation in which gathering more information will eliminate confusion and enable arriving at a firm answer. The Holy Trinity is a mystery, but not in that way. Even if we mere mortals had all the information about the nature of God, we could not understand it. We can barely grasp what we do know, and what we know raises more questions than it resolves. So be it. The second meaning of “mystery” is an ancient definition: One can know something only by living into it. One can know God by faith, for example.
The Feast of the Holy Trinity is the only Christian feast of a doctrine. It is more than that, though. Lutheran minister and liturgist Philip H. Pfatteicher recommends thinking of Trinity Sunday as:
…the celebration of the richness of the being of God and the occasion of a thankful review of the now completed mystery of salvation, which is the work of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.
—Commentary on theLutheran Book of Worship: Lutheran Liturgy in Its Ecumenical Context (1990), 301
A doctrine–especially the Holy Trinity–can seem abstract. Some people (including moi) like abstractions. However, abstractions leave others cold and spiritually unmoved. Salvation is not abstract, however; it is tangible. And how it works is a mystery in at least the second meaning of the word.
Happy Trinity Sunday!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 27, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF NEW JERSEY; AND HIS SON, WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF ALBANY; HYMN WRITERS
THE FEAST OF SAINTS ANTONY AND THEODOSIUS OF KIEV, FOUNDERS OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX MONASTICISM; SAINT BARLAAM OF KIEV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ABBOT; AND SAINT STEPHEN OF KIEV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ABBOT AND BISHOP
THE FEAST OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, POET AND RELIGIOUS WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINTS REMACLUS OF MAASTRICHT, THEODORE OF MAASTRICHT, LAMBERT OF MAASTRICHT, HUBERT OF MAASTRICHT AND LIEGE, AND FLORIBERT OF LIEGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT LANDRADA OF MUNSTERBILSEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; AND SAINTS OTGER OF UTRECHT, PLECHELM OF GUELDERLAND, AND WIRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES
THE FEAST OF SAINT ZITA OF TUSCANY, WORKER OF CHARITY
The gospel of Christ will always stand in judgment of the things that are happening in the political, economic, and social spheres of communities and nations. And if this is so, then martyrdom is not as far away as we think. The word “martyr” in Greek is the same word from which we get the word “witness.”
–Ernest Lee Stoffel, The Dragon Bound: The Revelation Speaks to Our Time (1981), 49-50
To be a witness to God can be risky. The risk may or may not involve violence, injury or death. However, even under the best of circumstances, to ignore or minimize that risk is foolish. Risk may even come from conventionally religious people–from powerful ones, perhaps.
I detect an element of humor in John 9:1-41. (Reading the Bible in such a way as to miss humor is far too common.) By the time a reader arrives at the end of the story, one may imagine steam pouring out of the ears of some of the Pharisees, if this story were in the form of a Looney Tunes cartoon. This would make for a wonderful scene in verse 27, with the healed man’s question,
Do you want to become his disciples yourselves?
—The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)
At the end of that story, the healed man found himself expelled from the synagogue. His plight must have resonated with members of the Johannine Jewish Christian community, on the margins of their Jewish communal life. Therefore, some Jews referred to other Jews as “the Jews.”
At the end of the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul the Apostle lived under house arrest in Rome. Ultimately, he did via beheading.
God may have struck down many enemies and oppressors of Israel, but many of the faithful have suffered and/or died for the faith, too.
The story of the Tower of Babel is a myth. Anyone consulting it in search for a reliable source of linguistic origins is on a doomed mission. That is not to say, however, that the story contains no truth.
This is a story about the folly of self-importance–collective self-importance, in this case. Verse 5 reads:
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built.
—The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)
That verse conveys the insignificance of human achievements relative to God.
The desire to make a name for ourselves–collectively and individually–is a great value in many societies. It is not, however, a value the Bible champions. Psalm 135 reads, in part:
Hallelujah.
Praise the name of the LORD;
give praise, you servants of the LORD,
who stand in the house of the LORD,
in the courts of the house of our God.
Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
sing hymns to His name, for it is pleasant.
For the LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself,
Israel, as His treasured possession.
–Verses 1-4, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
If we–collectively or individually–have a name that should last for generations, centuries, and millennia, God will give it to us. That name may not persist in human memory, though.
Some of them left a name behind them,
so that their praises are still sung.
While others have left no memory
and disappeared as though they had not existed.
They are now as though they had never been,
and so too, their children after them.
–Ecclesiasticus 44:8-9, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)
So be it.
To seek to glorify God and to maintain divine standards of political, economic, and social justice can be dangerous. At minimum, the risk is social marginalization and scorn. Much of this contempt may come from conventionally devout people who should know better. To serve God or to serve Caesar. To glorify God or to glorify oneself? To worship God or to worship country? The decisions are ours to make?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 23, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN THE ALMSGIVER, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
THE FEAST OF CHARLES KINGSLEY, ANGLICAN PRIEST, NOVELIST, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF EDWARD GRUBB, ENGLISH QUAKER AUTHOR, SOCIAL REFORMER, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF JAMES D. SMART, CANADIAN PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR
THE FEAST OF PHILLIPS BROOKS, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF MASSACHUSETTS, AND HYMN WRITER
God is in control, despite appearances to the contrary. The prophet Balaam could not speak anything other than what God commanded. This upset the men men paying Balaam to utter blessings they wanted to hear. The author of Psalm 135, praising God for being good, recounted instances of God smiting enemies of Israel. Jesus went to the cross, but somehow he had already conquered the world. Jesus also did not stay dead for long.
James 1:27 leads into a section (in Chapter 2) on respecting the poor with these words:
Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
—The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
I do not know about you, O reader, but I live in a society that does not respect the poor. The Letter of James teaches that faith without works is dead, and that works reveal faith. By that standard, my society does not respect the poor. Even many of the poor do not respect the poor. The teaching of various Hebrew prophets regarding such disregard for the impoverished concludes with divine judgment.
How is that for justice?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 12, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT BISCOP, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT OF WEARMOUTH
THE FEAST OF SAINT AELRED OF HEXHAM, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT OF RIEVAULX
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY MARY PUCCI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
THE FEAST OF HENRY ALFORD, ANGLICAN PRIEST, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR, LITERARY TRANSLATOR, HYMN WRITER, HYMN TRANSLATOR, AND BIBLE TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS, FOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME
The psalter of the Septuagint contains 151 psalms.
I have written based on all of them, in numerical order. I have retained the Hebrew numbering system, not that of the Septuagint.
Although I have no theological reticence to venture into textual territory that, according the United Methodism of my youth, is apocryphal, I do have limits. They reside in the realm of Orthodoxy, with its range of scriptural canons. Beyond that one finds the Pseudipigrapha. Psalm 151 concludes the Book of Psalms in The Orthodox Study Bible (2008); so be it.
The Hebrew psalter concludes with Psalm 150. In other psalters, however, the count is higher. In certain editions of the Septuagint, for example, Psalm 151 is an appendix to the Book of Psalms. In other editions of the Septuagint, however, Psalm 151 is an integrated part of the psalter. There is also the matter of the Syraic psalter, which goes as high as Psalm 155. I have no immediate plans to ponder Psalms 152-155, however. Neither do I plan to read and write about Psalms 156-160 any time soon, if ever.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 23, 2017 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS MARTIN DE PORRES AND JUAN MACIAS, HUMANITARIANS AND DOMINICAN LAY BROTHERS; SAINT ROSE OF LIMA, HUMANITARIAN AND DOMINICAN SISTER; AND SAINT TURIBIUS OF MOGROVEJO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JOHN COPELAND, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
The Book of Common Prayer (1979) includes a plan for reading the Book of Psalms in morning and evening installments for 30 days. I am therefore blogging through the Psalms in 60 posts.
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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 226
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Psalms 120-134 are Songs of Ascents, which pilgrims to Jerusalem used en route to festivals at the Temple.
Psalms 132 and 133 come from the time after the Babylonian Exile. Psalm 132 reflects the aspirations of many for the restoration of the Davidic Dynasty. Psalm 133 celebrates the rebuilding of the Temple and the resumption of worship there. Communal hopes for a better future mark these texts. Psalm 134 flows naturally from its immediate predecessor; in Psalm 134 people bless God and God blesses them.
People also bless God in Psalm 135. This text condemns idolatry and extols the greatness of God, as evident in nature and in previous dealings with the Israelite people. The name of God, we read, endures forever.
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a frequent refrain was
God bless America.
At the same time a new bumper sticker read,
AMERICA, BLESS GOD.
“God bless America,” by itself in that context, was incomplete, for it ignored human duties to God (while avoiding theocracy and calls for it, of course).
May we not be so concerned about obtaining divine blessings that we fall into or remain in a transactional relationship with God. May we nurture a mindset of gratitude because it is the correct spiritual practice.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 22, 2017 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JACK LAYTON, CANADIAN ACTIVIST AND FEDERAL LEADER OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY
THE FEAST OF JOHN DRYDEN, ENGLISH PURITAN THEN ANGLICAN THEN ROMAN CATHOLIC POET, PLAYWRIGHT, AND TRANSLATOR
The themes of light and of the liberation of Gentile people, present in the post for the previous Sunday, are obvious her also. Rahab and her family find deliverance. Also, St. Cornelius the Centurion and his household join the Christian fold formally. In the same story St. Simon Peter learns the difference between separatism and holiness.
The reading from Luke 11 requires some explanation. The erroneous physiological assumption at work is one common at the time. That assumption is that the eyes allow the light of the body to go out, hence
Your eyes are the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness.
–Luke 11:34, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
(Jesus was the Savior of the world. He was not an optometrist.)
Nevertheless, the issue of inner spiritual light and darkness is a true and timeless one. Gentiles can have light within them, just as Jews can have darkness within them. (Read Luke 11:37-54.) Indeed, each of us has both inner light and darkness. The question is, which one is dominant? Just as good people commit bad deeds, bad people commit good deeds too.
May God liberate us from our inner darkness and our inability and unwillingness to recognize the light in others, especially those different from ourselves.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MAY 3, 2017 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIE-LEONIE PARADIS, FOUNDER OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAMILY
The readings from Daniel 3 and 6 tell of faithful Jews in deadly peril due to their fidelity to God, who delivered them. After each deliverance a violent monarch became the earthly protector of the faithful. Details of how this worked are not the content of warm and fuzzy lessons for children’s Sunday School.
1 John 2:15 says:
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
–The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
“The world” refers not to the created order but to the evil order in which faithful people face persecution.
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”
–John 16:31-33, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
The extraordinary context for that portion of the Johannine Gospel is that Jesus was about to die. In the Gospel of John he said that immediately prior to his betrayal and crucifixion. The worst which people did to him was terrible indeed, but God was more powerful, as the Resurrection revealed.
The call to reject the world which Christ has conquered is not a command to eschew all aspects of culture, popular and otherwise, many of which are beneficial and others of which are harmless. No, it is a mandate to establish and stick to proper priorities; God must come first. So may we recognize and respect the image of God within others and act accordingly. May we reject the fear which leads people to harm each other instead of building each other up.
And now, my friends, all that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure, all that is lovable and attractive, whatever is excellent and admirable–fill your thoughts with these things.
–Philippians 4:8, The Revised English Bible (1989)
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 17, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF MARIA STEWART, EDUCATOR
THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB, FOUNDER OF SAVE THE CHILDREN
THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER
One day, when Isaac was old and his eyes so dim that he could not see, he called his older son Esau.
My son!
he said to him.
Here I am,
he replied.
He said,
Here I am an old man, not knowing what day I may die. Get your weapons, then, your quiver and bow, and go out into the fields, and hunt some game for me. Then make me a tasty dish, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, that I may give you my blessing before I die.
Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac when Isaac spoke to his son Esau; so when Esau went off to the fields to hunt game for his father, Rebekah said to her son Jacob,
I have just heard your father say to your brother Esau, “Bring me some game, and make me a tasty dish to eat, that I may bless you before the LORD before I die.” Now then, my son, obey me in the charge that I give you. Go to the flock and get two fat kids for me there, that I may make them into a tasty dish for your father, such as he likes….
…and taking the best clothes of her older son Esau, which she had in the house, Rebekah dressed her younger son Jacob in them; she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth parts of his neck, and committed the tasty dish and bread which she had made into the hands of her son Jacob. Then he went in to his father, and said,
Father!
He said,
Yes. Who are you, my son?
Jacob said to his father,
I am Esau, your first-born; I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat once more of my game, that you may give me your blessing.
But Isaac said to his son,
How ever did you come to find it so quickly, my son?
He said,
Because the LORD your God brought it in my path.
Isaac then said to Jacob,
Come up close that I may feel you, my son, to see whether you really are my son Esau or not.
So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him, and said,
The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are those of Esau.
Hence he did not detect him, because his hands were hairy, like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.
Are you really my son Esau?
he said.
I am,
he replied.
So he said,
Bring me some of your game to eat, my son, that I may give you my blessing.
So he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him,
Come here and kiss me, my son.
So he went up and kissed him; and when he smelt his clothes, he blessed him, saying,
Ah, my son’s smell is like that of a field tht the LORD has blessd.
May God give you of the heaven’s dew,
Of earth’s fatness, with plenty of grass and wine!
Nations shall serve you,
And peoples bow down to you.
Be master of your brothers,
And let your mother’s sons bow down to you!
Cursed be they who curse you,
And blessed b they who bless you!
Psalm 135:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Hallelujah!
Praise the Name of the LORD;
give praise, you servants of the LORD.
2 You who stand in the house of the LORD,
in the courts of the house of our God.
3 Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
sing praises to his Name, for it is lovely.
4 For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself
and Israel for his own possession.
5 For I know that the LORD is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
6 The LORD does whatever pleases him, in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all the deeps.
Matthew 9:14-17 (An American Translation):
Then the disciples of John came up to him [Jesus] and said,
Why is it that we and the Pharisees are keeping the fast, while your disciples are not keeping it?
Jesus said to them,
Can wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But a time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and they will fast then. But no one sews a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old coat, for the patch will tear away from the coat, and make the hole worse than ever. And people do not put new wine into old wine-skins, or if they do, the skins burst, and the wine runs out and the skins are spoiled. But people put new wine into fresh wine skins, and so both are saved.
Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant to us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Bible is brutally honest about many major figures with whom the reader is supposed to sympathize. Jacob, who becomes Israel, for whom the Jewish nation is named, is an opportunist. Rebekah, his mother, is a schemer. Isaac, his aged and blind father, seems not to be at the peak of his mental powers in Genesis 27. And Esau, the trouble-maker, is twice an aggrieved party at the hand of his brother Jacob in Genesis. Yet, according to an oracle in Genesis 25:33, Jacob is supposed to take precedence, and he does. This happens by underhanded methods, but it comes true.
I dislike all these characters by Genesis 27, but Biblical writers want me to pick a side. The Bible is a complicated volume.
In Matthew 9:14-17 we have a variation of the Markan teaching about wineskins and wine (Mark 2:18-22). Matthew adds the “so both are saved” element. So, in Matthew, there is value in traditions and innovations, but not all traditions and all innovations. Consider the theology of the Gospel of Matthew: Jesus praises Torah piety, but not many of those who claim to practice it; they get it wrong. So Jesus (both old and new) breaks many traditions while keeping others. His innovative variety of Torah piety is what people should have been keeping all along. He scandalizes many respectable religious establishment types by eating with irreligious people and Roman collaborators, and by not fasting when others do.
Consider the Apostles of Jesus, too. These were imperfect men. They spent most of the timeframe of the Gospels squabbling and failing to understand even basic teachings. Yet God worked through them, as much as God worked through Rebekah and Jacob. And God works through us, who are quite flawed.
God is sovereign. That is good news. Are we willing to recognize both the old and new ways in which God works?
I have particular take on the old-new debate. I belong to The Episcopal Church, which replaces its Book of Common Prayer from time to time. To be precise, this has happened previously in 1789, 1892, 1928, and 1979. Liturgical revision immediately prior to 1979 began in 1967, the proposed Prayer Book arrived in 1976, and the General Convention approved it three years later, but still some of my fellow Episcopalians refer to it as the “new” Prayer Book. As I heard a catechist in the Diocese of Georgia ask in 2000, how old does the 1979 Prayer Book have to be before it ceases to be new?
We humans like our traditions, but we ought not transform them into idols. No, they should be icons. The difference is that an idol replaces God and distracts our attention from God. But an icon is a visible representation of God, who is invisible; we see God through an icon. A Prayer Book, like any tradition, ought to be a means to an end, not an end. From time to time a new one arrives; there is room for both innovation and tradition.
As for me, the 1928 Prayer Book is a relic, a volume from which I have never worshiped. I am a 1979 Prayer Booker. It contains the best of its predecessor volumes while incorporating many pleasant innovations, not least of which is Eucharistic Prayer C from Holy Eucharist Rite II. The book, like all products of human hands and minds, is imperfect. But it is excellent, and through it God nourishes my spiritual life. For that I am grateful.
It is an excellent wineskin.
This might surprise those oppose such formal liturgies, but so be it. God works through them and their prayers, too.
God works in many ways, through many vehicles of various types. Thanks be to God!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 18, 2010 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MARC BOEGNER, ECUMENIST
THE FEAST OF DOROTHY SAYERS, NOVELIST
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Published originally at ORDINARY TIME DEVOTIONS BY KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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