Monday • 4/10/2023 •
Easter Week
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 93; Psalm 98; Jonah 2:1–9; Acts 2:22–32; John 14:1–14
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of Easter Week, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Here we are on Easter Monday, and Psalm 98 invites us to, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things” (Psalm 98:1). For me, the memory of Good Friday’s reading of Psalm 22 is still fresh, with its forecast of Jesus’s lament upon the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1).
On that first Good Friday, I don’t suppose there was anybody on the scene who could have anticipated that day would be remembered as “good”— except perhaps the soldiers who won a scrap of clothing, or Barabbas who was spared the gibbet. On that first Good Friday, I doubt that Psalm 98’s “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things,” could possibly have come to anybody’s mind either.
Image: Stained glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida
Except for one person. The person who began the lament, “My God, my God….” As a practicing Jew, Jesus would have known that psalm turns a corner: “You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brothers and sisters; In the midst of the assembly I will sing a hymn to You” (Psalm 22:21c–22, my edit of NKJV). Even as he resigned himself to taking the curse of sin and death to himself, Jesus knew things would not end in abandonment, but in vindication. Not in curse, but in blessing. He would go away as condemned criminal, only to return as conquering King. He could sing the lament of abandonment because he knew he would rise to sing the chant of victory.
And so, Psalm 98 is altogether fitting for us to read and sing and chant this Easter Monday.
Jesus’s resurrection brings God’s victory over sin and death and error. “With his right hand and his holy arm has he won for himself the victory” (Psalm 98:2). At the exodus, Yahweh’s mighty and victorious arm cast Pharaoh’s army into the sea. Similarly, the power of Christ’s resurrection has “brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life” (BCP, p. 368).
Jesus’s resurrection means God’s righteousness for the nations and his mercy and faithfulness to Israel. “…[H]is righteousness has he openly shown in
the sight of the nations. He remembers his mercy and faithfulness to the house of Israel…” (Psalm 98:3b–4a). Christ rises as (to use Paul’s language) “the Last Adam” or “the Second Man” (1 Corinthians 15:45,47). With Christ’s resurrection, God reasserts his righteous and just claim over all humanity, not just over one chosen nation. At the same time, Christ’s resurrection as Israel’s one true and faithful Son, means mercy for Israel, the rebellious people of Yahweh’s favor.
Jesus’s resurrection means joy. “Shout with joy to the Lord,” enjoins Psalm 98:5. The Easter Vigil’s centerpiece song “The Exsultet” radiates such joy: “Rejoice now, heavenly hosts and choirs of angels … Rejoice and sing now, all the round earth … Rejoice and be glad now, Mother Church.” That joy is rooted in Jesus’s resurrection, where “wickedness is put to flight, and sin is washed away.” There is restoration of “innocence to the fallen, and joy to those who mourn” (BCP, pp. 286,287). There is no sadness we carry that has not been shared by the Man of Sorrows. Likewise, by virtue of his rising, there’s no gloom his presence cannot dispel.
Jesus’ resurrection prompts the engagement of all creation in full-throated praise of God. “Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the voice of song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn … Let the sea make a noise and all that dwell in it…” (Psalm 98:6,7,8). As Psalm 98’s sister psalms put it, there is a beauty to God’s holiness, and there’s an adorning of that holiness to which we are called (Psalm 96:9; 93:6). Whether we sing beautifully or off-pitch, whether we play a musical instrument or just hum with the radio—regardless, we orchestrate creation’s praise. It is a glorious calling. I pray we know much joy and wonder, pleasure and awe, in its pursuit throughout this Eastertide.
Collect for Monday in Easter Week. Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that we who celebrate with awe the Paschal feast may be found worthy to attain to everlasting joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+