Dancing in the Streets – Psalm 145

A text – Psalm 145

¹ I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
² Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
³ Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable.

⁴ One generation shall extol your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.
⁵ They will recount the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works I will meditate.
⁶ They will proclaim the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.
⁷ They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

⁸ The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

A reflection:

We have this psalm this week, right after the Jonah story from my Wednesday post. I read a commentary that posed this exercise: what if we were to read this psalm as if it were coming from the mouths of all the people God decided not to annihilate in Ninevah because of Jonah’s reluctant terse warning on a street corner? What if they are rejoicing and worshiping the God who could have rained destruction down upon them, but, since they repented, God spared them?

I love to picture things, and now I am picturing everyone, from the mighty ruler of Ninevah to the lowest citizen, and even the many animals that God mentions as he talks with Jonah. They heard Jonah’s warning, put on sackcloth and ashes or dust, and repented, turning toward God. And suddenly the divine retribution threat was gone! They were filled with joy and probably danced in the street, singing praises to God, praises like this psalm of David. I confess I am laughing at the idea of cattle and sheep doing that, but why not? Why not?

The psalmist, and indeed the people and animals of Ninevah, have been spared by a God who loves them. Even God is smiling and dancing. Jonah isn’t – but that is another story from Wednesday’s post. Jonah is suffering from “evil eye” syndrome. But the rescued people are not. Everything is goodness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

We can’t always see it, but we are not always looking for it, either. Let us not catch the evil eye syndrome from Jonah. Let us rejoice, like David, the psalm writer. Let us declare that the Lord is good, and let’s go out and be detectives of divinity, God’s work in the world, today and every day. Hallelujah!

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for being our gracious and merciful heavenly father. Help us to be detectives of your divine action in our world even today. Help us to look for clues to your creative work in our neighborhoods and declare it to others we meet. Amen.