21 June 2022

Praying with the Psalms in Ordinary Time:
21 June 2022 (Psalm 118)

‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’ (Psalm 118: 22) … a cross cut into a cornerstone in the main church in the Monastery of Vlatádon in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In the Calendar of the Church, we are in Ordinary Time. Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 118:

Psalm 118 is the sixth of the six psalms (Psalms 113-118) comprising the Hallel (הַלֵּל, ‘Praise’). In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is counted as Psalm 117. It is often known by the Latin name it takes from its opening words, Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius.

The Hallel psalms are known as the ‘Egyptian Hallel’ because of the references in Psalm 114 to the Exodus from Egypt. Psalms 113-118 are among the earliest prayers written to be recited in the Temple on days of national celebration. They were sung as accompaniment to the Pesach or Passover sacrifice. Early rabbinic sources suggest that these psalms were said on the pilgrimage festivals – Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.

On all days when Hallel is recited, Psalm 118 is recited in its entirety, with the final 10 verses recited twice each.

This psalm includes the first verse of the Bible that I was ever taught to remember by heart, at a youth camp at the Quaker Meeting House at Moyallon, near Portadown, Co Armagh, which dates back to 1685 and a colony of members of the Society of Friends from England:

This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118: 24).

Psalm 118 has as its themes thanksgiving to God and reliance on God rather than on human strength. In this psalm, we are called to give thanks to God for his mercy and love, which are everlasting. The one who was rejected is now God’s chosen ruler, and all shall share in the power and blessing of God.

In Jewish tradition, verse 1 (‘O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever!’) was first recited by King David when he brought the Ark to Jerusalem (see I Chronicles 16: 34).

The Psalmist expresses his faith that:

I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
The Lord has punished me severely,
but he did not give me over to death (Psalm 118: 17-18).

Now he can enter the Temple (verse 19) to give thanks to God (verse 20). He has suffered greatly, but God has preserved his life:

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118: 22).

In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Peter speaks after his arrest to the Sanhedrin of the Risen Christ, describing him as ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; [he] has become the cornerstone’ (Acts 4: 11). Saint Paul too refers to Christ as ‘the cornerstone’ (see Ephesians 2: 20).

Verse 26 (‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord’) is a blessing pronounced by the priests to those who come to worship in the Temple. One of the tasks of the priests was to bless the people who came in pilgrimage to the Temple to make their offerings.

This verse is sung by the people as Christ enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Liturgically, this verse is sung as the Benedictus immediately after the Sanctus (from Isaiah 6), as praise of Christ in his victory over the grave, and as a sign of his perpetual entry into our lives in the Eucharist.

In many places, this psalm is sung on Palm Sunday as the procession moves from outside into the church.

‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord’ (Psalm 118: 26) … the entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday – an image in Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Psalm 118 (NRSVA):

1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever!

2 Let Israel say,
‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
3 Let the house of Aaron say,
‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
4 Let those who fear the Lord say,
‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’

5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
6 With the Lord on my side I do not fear.
What can mortals do to me?
7 The Lord is on my side to help me;
I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put confidence in mortals.
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes.

10 All nations surrounded me;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
12 They surrounded me like bees;
they blazed like a fire of thorns;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,
but the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.

15 There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
‘The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
16 the right hand of the Lord is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.’
17 I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
18 The Lord has punished me severely,
but he did not give me over to death.

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.

20 This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.

21 I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvellous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!

26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27 The Lord is God,
and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
up to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God, I will extol you.

29 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is the Swarupantor programme in the Church of Bangladesh. This theme was introduced on Sunday.

Tuesday 21 June 2022:

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray today in these words:

We pray for the Church of Bangladesh and the dioceses of Barishal, Dhaka and Kushtia. May we support the Church as they seek to be salt and light to the people of Bangladesh.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A cock-horse to Banbury Cross
and old stables in Stony Stratford

The old stables behind the Cock Hotel in Stony Stratford … was this stabling for the ‘Cock Horse’ on its way to Banbury Cross? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes.


Recently I posted photographs of the stables, old and new, behind the Cock Hotel on the High Street in Stony Stratford, only to have people ask on social media whether these were the original stables for the ‘Cock Horse’ that took the fine lady to Banbury Cross.

The first version of the children’s nursery rhyme about riding a cock horse to Banbury Cross may date back to in 1725, with the opening words, ‘Now on Cock-horse does he ride.’ An early version of the present rhyme was included in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book around 1744.

But was there an earlier rhyme?

Who was the fine lady?

Which cross in Banbury was she riding to?

And did she make her journey on a horse from the stables behind the Cock Hotel in Stony Stratford?

Some comments suggest a mediaeval date for the rhyme because the bells the lady wears on her toes refer to the fashion of wearing bells on the end of toes and shoes in the 15th century.

Banbury Cross was pulled down around 1600, and the present cross only dates from 1859. So, which cross was she trying to get to?

Of course, it is possible that Banbury Cross refers not to a monument but to Banbury’s location at an important crossroads. But, in the past, Banbury had at least three other crosses – the High Cross, the Bread Cross, and the White Cross – all destroyed by zealous Puritans, who condemned the cross as a symbol of paganism. The carvings decorating the cross, included Christ on the Cross, the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and an image of a bare-headed man with a book, perhaps one of the Four Evangelists.

At dawn on 26 July 1600, two masons took it on themselves to start hacking and pulling at the High Cross. Soon they were joined by 40 more collaborators as a partisan crowd started to gather. As the cross crumbled and fell, Henry Shewell, later the bailiff, cried out ‘God be thanked, Dagon the deluder of the people is fallen down!’ (see I Samuel 5: 2-7)

The present cross in the centre of Banbury has nothing to do with the rhyme. It was erected in 1859 to celebrate the wedding of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, to Prince Frederick of Prussia.

The fine lady in the rhyme has been identified with both Lady Godiva and Queen Elizabeth I. Banbury was at the top of a steep hill and in order to help carriages up the steep incline a white cock horse or large stallion was made available to help. When Queen Elizabeth’s carriage tried to go up the hill a wheel broke, one local legend says, and she Queen chose to mount the cock horse and ride to Banbury Cross. The people of the town decorated the cock horse with ribbons and bells and provided minstrels to accompany her – ‘she shall have music wherever she goes.’

On the other hand, local tradition suggests the fine lady was really a ‘Fiennes Lady,’ Celia Fiennes, whose brother, William Fiennes (1641-1698), 3rd Viscount Saye and Sele, lived nearby at Broughton Castle.

A ‘cock horse’ can mean a high-spirited horse, and the additional horse used to assist pulling a cart or carriage up a hill. It can also mean an entire or uncastrated horse. From the mid-16th century it also meant a pretend hobby horse or an adult’s knee. There is also an expression ‘a-cock-horse,’ meaning ‘astride.’

But could the nursery rhyme refer to the Cock Hotel in Stony Stratford, less than 30 miles or half an hour east of Banbury and where people could hire a horse to ride across to Banbury?

It is said John Cok was the landlord of the Cock Inn about 1480, and that the hotel takes its name from him, not the bird depicted on the sign.

The Cock and the neighbouring Bull Hotel were convenient half-way, stopping places for stagecoaches, where travellers could find food, entertainment and a bed for the night, while horses were shod, fed, watered and rested, or fresh horses were made ready for the next day’s journey.

A major fire started in the nearby Bull Hotel in 1742 and spread down to the river and beyond, destroying many buildings in Stony Stratford, including the Cock Hotel and the old Parish Church. The Cock Hotel was rebuilt and travellers staying at the Cock and the Bull would vie with each other as they told outrageous tales of the road, leaving us with ‘Cock and Bull’ stories.

Local legend continues to insist that the Cock Hotel is the ‘cock’ of the nursery rhyme, and part of the stabling facilities behind the Cock can still be seen today. The Vaults Bar has reopened at the Bull, and hopefully there are plans to reopen the Bull itself, opening the possibility of a new generation of ‘Cock and Bull’ stories.

The Stable Yard behind the Cock Hotel … being turned to new uses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)