prayer doesn't have to be dull... psalm 98 - tuesday before epiphany

Psalm 98 keeps coming back and we have prayed it over and over again ever since even before we started the season of advent.  But it is always worth coming back to savor what the psalm has to offer.

In our responsorial psalm, we were told to "sing joyfully, break into song."  In some bibles, this is translated as "shout joyfully."  Some even translate it as "make a joyful noise to the Lord," what with the trumpets and the horn joining the lyre, and what with the earth, the hills, the seas and the rivers making noises of their own to praise the Lord.

Two points.  First sing.  Whenever God does something marvelous, Israel sings.  Israel did not just recite long prayers or contented themselves with long rituals and offerings.  No.  Israel sung.  When Israel crossed the Red Sea, Miriam sung, and not contented, she got a tambourine and even danced.  When Hannah was given a child, she sung.  When the ark of the covenant was brought for the first time to Jerusalem, David sung and danced in sheer joy.

This tradition is carried over to the New Testament – Mary sung the magnificat when Elizabeth recognized the child she was carrying in her womb, Zechariah sung the benedictus when John was born, Simeon sung the nunc dimittis when the child was presented in the temple.

There's a lot of singing in the bible.  People do not just recite prayers, they do not just perform rituals.  They sing.  It is a basic response.  Why?  St Augustine has two popular quotations on singing.  First, singing is for lovers.  When you are in love, you sing.  When Eve was presented by God to Adam, Adam did not just say something.  He sang.  The first words of man recorded in the bible was a song.  So, be in love always.

Second, St. Augustine also said, "he who sings well, prays twice."  One doubles his prayer when he sings his prayers. 

We Filipinos are fond of singing. We invented the karaoke although they say the Japanese patented it, named it and mass produced it.  Even before the prevalence of extra judicial killing we are already a people who would readily kill for the chance to sing Frank Sinatra's My Way.  We are a singing people and we should bring that with us even, and most especially, in our worship and praise of God.  So sing well, listen to praise music in your cars, in your homes.  Prayer doesn't have to be dull, so sing it.

Another point we can get from Psalm 98 is the exhortation to "make joyful noise."   Do you know that in the liturgy we make joyful noises?  In the singing of the gloria for example the bells are rung to signify our joy as a people.  In the past we even have pwitis to mark that part in the liturgy.  The ringing of the bells during consecration is not just to call attention to what is happening in the liturgy but it is also to signify our joy as a people for the presence of the Lord, for this wonderful gift of his presence in the Eucharist.

But this joyful noise if you notice is not just my joyful noise but it is always ours – our joyful noise.  In fact this joyful noise in Psalm 98 is cosmic, meaning all the earth and everything on earth even the rivers and the seas and the trees and the hills and the mountains and the birds join in praising God.  Making joyful noise is always corporate.  That is why we should be considerate when we make joyful noises, at the same time we should also learn to join in when people are exuberant with joy.

So, with Psalm 98, let our songs resound as we give witness, as we testify like John to the marvelous deeds God has done, is doing and has promised to do for us. Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; break into song; sing praise.