Inviting others to praise the Lord
November 28, 2023 - Tuesday, 34th Week in Ordinary Time
Daniel 3:57-61
Today, we continue listening to the famous song of the three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refused to worship the golden image set by the Babylonia king Nebuchadnezzar. Yesterday, they were praising the Lord, “Blessed are you, O Lord” (Daniel 3:52). Today, they invite “all [the] works of the Lord” to join them in that hymn of praise (Daniel 3:57). They begin with God’s angels and end with all those who fear the Lord (Daniel 3:90). The general reason for that praise is the proclamation that the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever (Daniel 3:89-90). However, in their case, the reason for that praise was the fact that the Lord delivered them from fire and the power of death (Daniel 3:88).
The works of the Lord included in the hymn embrace the entire creation - things invisible like the angels and visible like the stars, and the natural elements such as fire and heat. It resembles the first chapter of Genesis by beginning from the top down, from angels of the Lord and heavens to people and then to “spirits and souls of the just” (Daniel 3:86). The author follows an ancient cosmology in which rain was imagined to come from “waters above the heavens” (Daniel 3:60).
The hymn was probably sung in two voices. One voice declares who should praise the Lord, for example, “angels of the Lord” and the second voice responds with the chorus “praise and exalt him above all forever”. In ancient times, to praise and exalt the Lord above all forever was not just an act of worship but also a political statement. By refusing to worship the gods of Babylon, the three young men rejected the Babylonian empire with its claim to rule the world. And it remains applicable in our world as well where a contemporary global empire and the international corporations claim the right to rule the entire world.
Since this part of the book of Daniel does not appear in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible that all translations of the modern Bibles are based on, the text of this hymn comes to us in Greek. Two words describe the Lord at the end of this hymn - good and mercy (Daniel 3:89). In Greek the word, “good” is pronounced nearly identical to the word “Christ”. It was indeed an interesting “coincidence”. Jesus, the Christ, was indeed an embodiment of God’s goodness. We see it on the pages of the Gospels, particularly in the story of his unjust trial and death. He could destroy his opponents with one word but instead, he prayed for them and even excused their terrible deeds (see Luke 23:34).
The second word “mercy” is a translation of the Hebrew word “hesed” which defines God’s steadfastness. One of the best definitions of this word can be found in St. John Paul’s II encyclical letter on God’s mercy. The Saint wrote that “hesed” is "a love that gives, love more powerful than betrayal, grace stronger than sin" (St. John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia) that will never pass away (Is. 54:10). Again, we see the embodiment of this character of God in Jesus Christ. Pope Francis called Jesus “the face of the Father’s Mercy”.
Our reflection on this hymn will continue tomorrow but today we can ask ourselves: whom would I want to invite to praise the Lord? And what reasons would I give for that praise?