Psalm 34: 2-3, 17-19, 23
Our responsorial this week comes from Psalm 34, a thanksgiving psalm in acrostic form, each line beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This structure is symbolic: it suggests completeness, as if the psalmist is offering praise “from A to Z.”
The psalm proclaims that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and delivers the just, echoing Sirach’s assurance that the cry of the lowly reaches God.
I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth. Let my soul glory in the LORD; the lowly will hear me and be glad.
The psalm opens with continual praise of God.
This praise was probably offered in a liturgical setting, for it is heard by the lowly (’ănāwîm), those who live in trust and dependence on the LORD.
The LORD has eyes for the just, and ears for their cry. The LORD confronts the evildoers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
A sharp contrast is drawn between the just and the wicked. God turns with favor toward the righteous, attentive to their cries. By contrast, the wicked face God’s judgment.
In biblical thought, to have one’s memory blotted out is to lose all legacy and communion with God’s people. In a society that didn’t have a clear teaching about any afterlife, this meant that no trace of the person would survive; it would be as if that person had never even existed.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them. He is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. The LORD redeems the lives of his servants; no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.
The psalmist is not naive about the challenges of life, even the life of the righteous.
Yet suffering does not signal abandonment: God’s nearness to the brokenhearted assures them that their afflictions are not meaningless. Deliverance may come in this life or ultimately in eternal redemption, but God’s saving presence is certain.
Trust in God leads not to despair but to refuge and hope.
Sunday Readings 