Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Psalm 89 is a wonderful example of the fertile ground the Psalter offers for prayer and meditation. The notes to the KJV (1611) version of this psalm describe the psalmist praising “God for His covenant, for His wonderful power, for the care of His Church, for His favor to the kingdom of David. Then, complaining of contrary events, he expostulateth, prayeth, and blesseth God.” As a wonderfully economical summary of this psalm, these Jacobean notes are difficult to improve upon. But today is a special day on the Church’s calendar, and by marvelous coincidence---is anything coincidental, by the way, when we brush against the kingdom of God?---the feast established by the Ancient Church, commemorated today, absolutely fits with the editors’ snippets of commentary written 400 years ago. The feast is the “Meeting of the Lord.” On His fortieth day the Lord Jesus was taken to the Temple, to fulfill the Law of Moses. There He was recognized by the elder Simeon, and the righteous Anna, two elderly believers St. Luke tells us who had been waiting for the “consolation of Israel,” as the Evangelist puts it. Their prophetic speech has become enshrined in the Canon of Scripture, and in the prayers of the Church. The Church Fathers tell us that this Meeting of the Lord is important because it marks the moment when the “New Covenant” between God and man is revealed---in the face of a tiny baby, offered to His God by poor parents. St. Simeon’s wonderful prayer, called in the West the “Nunc dimittis” (the first two words of the Latin version), the closing prayer of each day’s Vespers in the Orthodox Church, illuminates the profound mystery: “Lord now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.” (Luke 2: 29-32) What Simeon says in these few words is amongst the most sublime---and important prayers in all of Scripture. The Old Covenant had been established by God to root His presence in the world. He had chosen a people to be His own, that through their experience the worship of the One God might be established and maintained in the world. But the realization that there was only One God posed a dilemma of sorts: the Old Covenant was a relationship between God and the Hebrews; but how did this One God relate to the rest of His creation? How were the gentiles to know, love and serve the One God? The answer, Christianity affirms, lies in the mystery of salvation: that at a moment in time, He Who was “eternally begotten” deigned to become man for our sake, that through His life and death He might reveal the love of God for all men. So when Simeon takes the Babe into his arms, he speaks to, and for, all of us. If one reads Psalm 89 in the light of the feast day, this song becomes one of praise and invocation to the Infant-King. “The heavens are thine; the earth also is Thine; As for the world and the fullness thereof, Thou hast founded them.” (v. 11) “Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face.” (v. 14) Indeed, at one level, the entire psalm might be read as a “dialogue” between the Father and His Son, with the prayer of us suppliants “complaining of contrary events” entering into the final verses. There are many different ways to “pray “ Psalm 89, of course. This song may speak very differently to your heart on this particular morning. But the profundity of the Psalter, and the richness of the Church’s calendar illustrate once again how this marvelous prayer book might be prayed by believing Christians, and why the Fathers insist that Christ is to be found on every page of Holy Scripture. Gary Feast of the Meeting of the Lord
