Everyone should have a chance to hear this Good News
Psalm 22:26b-28 and 30-32. January 31, 2023 - Tuesday, 4th Week
Psalm 22 is familiar to many of us because Jesus prayed using its words from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps 22:2; see Matt 27:46; Mk 15:34). This psalm is divided into two parts. The first part (2-22a) describes a life-threatening danger in which the psalmist found himself. He complains about it to God and pleads for God’s intervention. In the second part (22b-32), the psalmist thanks God for his help and shares his experience of deliverance with others.
The part of Psalm 22 that we hear today comes from that second part of praise and thanksgiving. The psalmist speaks about fulfilling the vows that he probably made during the time of crisis. We all made such promises in time of need: “Lord if you help, I will do this or that”. Now, he can do that because the Lord rescued him from danger. Moreover, his experience becomes an encouragement to others. The one who complained at the beginning of the psalm that God had abandoned him and was not paying attention to his prayer for help, now speaks about God’s righteousness.
In the Jewish tradition, this psalm is connected with the book of Esther. The Jewish people found themselves in dire straits threatened with extermination by a powerful official on the Persian court, Naaman. But God saved them through the intervention of a Jewish queen, Esther. Christian tradition connects the first part of this psalm with Jesus' passion and the second part with his resurrection.
The psalm vividly portrays the constant drama of human life that moves between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It begins with abandonment and ends with declaring God’s fame to everyone. At the heart of the Church’s proclamation is the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We share it with the entire world. Together with the psalmist we want to see all the ends of the earth turning to the LORD, and all the families of the nations bowing down before the Lord.
But, the psalmist expands the circle of those who will praise the Lord to those in the realm of death and to those not yet born (see Ps 22:30-32). Saint Peter in his letter writes about the Gospel being preached to the dead (see 1 Peter 4:6; also 3:18-22) and for nearly two thousand years the Church has proclaimed the Gospel to new generations of people. Everyone should know the Lord who alone can turn our circumstances around. Everyone should have the chance to hear the Gospel of Christ and experience its transforming power.