07 July 2022

Praying with the Psalms in Ordinary Time:
7 July 2022 (Psalm 134)

‘Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord’ (Psalm 134: 2) … hands raised in the priestly blessing on a gravestone in the Jewish cemetery in Kraków (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 134:

Psalm 134 is the fifteenth and last in a series of 15 short psalms (Psalm 120-134) known as the ‘Songs of Ascents.’ These psalms begin with the Hebrew words שיר המעלות‎ (Shir Hama’a lot). In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is counted as Psalm 133.

It is often known by its Latin title, Ecce nunc benedicite Dominum. In Churches in the Anglican Communion, including the Church of Ireland and the Church of England, this psalm is also a canticle known as Ecce Nunc.

Many scholars say these psalms were sung by worshippers as they ascended the road to Jerusalem to attend the three pilgrim festivals. Others say they were sung by the Levite singers as they ascended the 15 steps to minister at the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Mishnah notes the correspondence between the 15 songs and the 15 steps between the men’s court and the women’s courtyards in the Temple. A Talmudic legend says King David composed or sang the 15 songs to calm the rising waters at the foundation of the Temple.

One view says the Levites first sang the Songs of Ascent at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple during the night of 15 Tishri 959 BCE. Another study suggests they were composed for a celebration after Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in 445 BCE. Others suggest they may originally have been songs sung by the exiles returning from Babylon, ascending to Jerusalem or individual poems later collected together and given the title linking them to pilgrimage after the Babylonian captivity.

These psalms are cheerful and hopeful, and they place an emphasis on Zion. They were suited for being sung because of their poetic style and the sentiments they express. They are brief, almost like epigrams, and they are marked by the use of a keyword or repeated phrase that serves as a rung on which the poem ascends to its final theme.

Psalm 134 is one of the shortest chapters in the Book of Psalms, being one of three psalms with three verses, the others being Psalm 131 and Psalm 133. The shortest psalm is Psalm 117, with two verses.

Psalm 134 brings the sequence of the Songs of Ascent to a close by calling on the people to bless God and on God to bless the people. This psalm is a fitting conclusion to the Songs of Ascents which were sung in the Temple in Jerusalem by day, exhorting the ministers or servants of the Lord to continue with their work in the house of the Lord by night, when the solemnities of the day are over.

The psalm could also be interpreted as a dialogue, as the priests and Levites who serve in the Temple are enjoined in verses 1 and 2 to spend their time during the night watch in acts of devotion rather than small talk.

In verse 3, they are urged to pray for the one who enjoined them in verse 1 – either the high priest or a captain of the night guard.

The former Chief Rabbi, the late Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, says the juxtaposition in the last verse of ‘heaven and earth’ and Zion, encapsulates the two dimensions of Judaism – the universal and the particular. God is everywhere, but it is in Zion that his presence is most apparent.

The Midrash Tehillim connects the contents of this psalm with several Jewish practices. Rabbi Yochanan says that ‘servants of the Lord who stand in the house of the Lord at night’ (verse 1) are those who engage in Torah study at night, which God considers in the same light ‘as if they occupied themselves with the priest’s service in the house of the Lord.’

The Midrash connects the lifting of the hands in preparation for blessing the Lord in verse 2 with the practice of lifting up the cup of wine with both hands for the recital of the Birkat Hamazon (Grace after Meals).

The Midrash also further connects this verse to the Priestly Blessing, as Rabbi Simeon ben Pazzi says that a Kohen who has not ritually washed his hands may not lift them to invoke the Priestly Blessing.

The Zohar explains verse 2 as referring to the kohanim or priests who bestow the priestly blessing with raised hands. Before pronouncing the blessing, the kohanim must ritually wash their hands. This handwashing is performed by the Levites, ‘who themselves are holy.’ If a Levite is not present, a firstborn son pours the water, since he too is called ‘holy.’

Prayer shawls and prayer books in the Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Chania, Crete … a man’s children come under his tallit to be blessed (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 134 (NRSVA):

A Song of Ascents.

1 Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
2 Lift up your hands to the holy place,
and bless the Lord.

3 May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Tackling Poverty.’ It was introduced on Sunday by Niall Cooper, Director at Church Action on Poverty.

Thursday 7 July 2022:

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

We pray for the physical and mental wellbeing of all people struggling to meet the rising cost of living.

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

Saint George, Holborn,
where Sylvia Plath and
Ted Hughes were married

The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Holborn, on the south end of Queen Square, was first built in 1703-1706 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

During last week’s visit to London, when two of us strolled through Bloomsbury and found ourselves in Queen Square and Brunswick Square for the first time, I also visited Saint George Holborn for the first time.

The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Holborn, is on the south end of Queen Square. The church is popularly known as Saint George Holborn and should not be confused with the later nearby Saint George’s Church, Bloomsbury, although the two churches have shared a burial ground, now known as Saint George’s Gardens.

Saint George Holborn was built in 1703-1706 as a proprietary chapel and a chapel of ease to Saint Andrew, Holborn. The church was built by public subscriptions from a group of residents of the newly developed area of Queen Square.

The Gothic porch on the Queen Square façade of Saint George Holborn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The church was designed by the architect Arthur Tooley, who was paid £3,500 to build the chapel and two houses by a group of 15 trustees. By a deed of settlement on 1 July 1706, they drew up an agreement to elect trustees to manage the affairs of the chapel and to appoint a minister, lecturer and clerk.

The trustees included Sir Streynsham Master (1640-1724), one of the 17th century pioneers of the English East India Company. The church was dedicated to Saint George to recall that Streynsham Master was the Governor of Fort St George in India.

By 1713, the proprietors of pews in Saint George’s Chapel entered into negotiations with the Commissioners for Building 50 New Churches to make the chapel a new parish church. The commissioners bought both the lease and the freehold of the chapel, provided money to repair the chapel and to purchase pews for the use of parishioners, and bought a piece of land near Gray’s Inn Road to serve as a burial ground for the parish.

The church was repaired and beautified around 1718 under the direction of Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736), a leading figure in the English Baroque style of architecture in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and who had worked alongside Christopher Wren and John Vanbrugh.

At that time, the magnificent baroque ceiling was introduced, along with the columns and entablature. Other fittings from this ‘reordering’ which remain are the font and reredos. The ceiling is a magnificent example of the English Baroque and with the classical entablature.

Saint George’s Church was consecrated on 26 September 1723 by the new Bishop of London, Edmund Gibson. A new parish of Saint George the Martyr was constituted and separated from Saint Andrew, Holborn, and the two parishes remained united for the care of highways and the poor.

The Revd William Stukeley (1687-1765), who was the rector from 1747 until his death there in 1765, was an antiquarian who had a significant influence on the later development of archaeology, pioneering the scholarly investigation of Stonehenge and Avebury in Wiltshire.

Saint George’s Gardens was one of the first burial grounds to be established away from a church. The land was bought to serve the parishioners of Saint George Holborn and Saint George’s, Bloomsbury. The plot of just over a hectare lay out in the open fields, to the north of the Foundling Hospital, in the parish of Saint Pancras. It was divided in two by a wall demarcating the two parishes. It appears to have attracted many burials of non-parishioners in the 18th and early 19th centuries, but stopped being used after 1855.

The first organ in the church was installed in 1773, and it has been rebuilt over the years.

The Rector of Saint George the Martyr was not provided with a proper endowment by the Commissioners, but received a salary from the quarterly assessments levied on the proprietors of pews. Two Acts of Parliament were obtained in 1816 and 1819 for the repair of the church and to make further provision for the Rector. These Acts provided for the appointment of trustees who were empowered to levy church rates.

Captain James South’s Charity included the Chimney Sweeps’ Sermon Fund and Educational Foundation. The church was once known as the sweeps’ church because kind parishioners provided Christmas dinners for 100 chimney sweeps’ apprentices or ‘climbing boys.’

The church was remodelled in 19th century by John Buonarotti Papworth and Samuel Sanders Teulon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The church was remodelled in the early 19th century by the architect John Buonarotti Papworth (1775-1847). Papworth added a bell-tower and two frontages to what had previously been a plain brick building.

The church was remodelled once again in 1867-1869 by the Gothic Revival architect Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-1873), noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings. Teulon almost entirely changed the exterior, removed the galleries and added the present columns and roof.

Saint George Holborn has a south-north orientation rather than the traditional liturgical east-west axis. It is of stucco with rusticated lower portion. It has a single storey, rectangular plan with a chancel to the south added by Teulon who almost entirely altered the exterior.

The central round-arched entrance on Cosmo Place (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Queen Square façade has a Gothic porch to the right of a pedimented central projecting bay with three buttresses, the central buttress forming a column between two architraved, round-headed windows and an architraved oculus above. The buttresses are surmounted by statues of praying angels. Beneath the windows, four roundels have carved reliefs with the symbols of the four evangelists.

To either side of this bay are three rounded-arched, traceried windows.

The Cosmo Place return has a central round-arched entrance and four windows. Over the west end, small square-plan tower has Gothic canopies and a clock, and the tower is surmounted by zinc covered spirelet with louvred gablets.

The welcoming area inside Saint George the Martyr (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Inside, the column and roof system was inserted by Teulon who took down all the galleries save that to the north which he retained and remodelled. The fine original reredos was retained on the east wall when Teulon reordered the church with a new south chancel with full fittings including a reredos with mosaic inlays. The stalls, pulpit, lectern, parclose screen and altar rails are also by Teulon. The other fittings include font, organ and case.

Saint George the Martyr was united with the Parish of Holy Trinity, Gray’s Inn Road, in 1931 and with Saint Bartholomew, Gray’s Inn Road, in 1959.

The Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and the American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath were married in this church on Bloomsday, 16 June 1956.

The church was designated a Grade II* listed building on 24 October 1951, and was restored in 1952 and 1989. The organ has been listed as a historic instrument by the British Institute of Organ Studies.

Today, the church is part of the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) network of evangelical churches, and the vicar or priest-in-charge, the Revd Jamie Haith, describes himself as the ‘Lead Pastor.’

Saint George Holborn is shaded by the trees on Queen Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)