Psalm 138: 1-3, 6, 8

Our responsorial psalm for this week comes from Psalm 138, a psalm of thanksgiving for God’s steadfast love, faithfulness, and saving help.

It is a fitting response to this week’s readings because it expresses confidence that the God who entrusts his work to human servants will faithfully bring his purposes to fulfillment.

I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth; in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise; I will worship at your holy temple.

The psalmist has come to the temple to worship and publicly proclaim the goodness of God.

The Hebrew word ’elōhîm (“angels”) can also refer more broadly to heavenly beings, giving the psalmist’s praise a cosmic dimension: he worships the Lord before the heavenly court.

I will give thanks to your name, because of your kindness and your truth:

The psalmist’s gratitude is rooted in God’s faithfulness to his covenant. This is clear from the presence of technical covenant language: lovingkindness (hesed) and truth (’ěmet).

When I called, you answered me; you built up strength within me.

The psalmist’s thanksgiving arises from experience: when he called upon the Lord in distress, God answered and gave him strength. His confidence rests not on his own merits but on God’s steadfast fidelity.

The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees, and the proud he knows from afar.

Though exalted above all, the Lord is attentive to the lowly, while the proud remain “afar.”

God’s greatness does not make him remote from the humble.

Your kindness, O LORD, endures forever; forsake not the work of your hands.

The psalmist concludes with confidence that God’s steadfast love will endure forever. The God who has been faithful in the past can be trusted with the future; the psalmist therefore places himself once again in the hands of the God who made him.