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

Nuclear warnings from the bunker ‘are now more relevant than ever’

Speaking at Irish CND’s annual Hiroshima Day commemorations in Merrion Square this afternoon

Patrick Comerford

While I was speaking at the annual Hiroshima Day commemoration in Merrion Square, Dublin, this afternoon [6 August 2016], a Facebook friend was visiting a bunker in Portadown.

I have never met this Facebook friend, yet. But she told me later that the tour “was very fascinating.”

She went on the say: “Then the tour guide said we should get the book Do you want to die for NATO? by Patrick Comerford.”

“We will be getting the book,” she promised her husband, and told him “that’s Patrick Comerford my fb friend.”

She went to say that the tour guide shows my book to all who visit the bunker.

It was open day today at the bunker, which is 15 ft below a field on the outskirts of Portadown.

The former monitoring bunker is a relic of the Cold War, and was once part of a wider network of similar structures throughout the United Kingdom, built to study and report the effects of nuclear explosions and the resulting radioactive fallout.

They were operated by men and women of the Royal Observer Corps, who were expected to spend three weeks below ground during a nuclear exchange.

The bunker was closed in 1991 but it has now been fully restored to as it would have been in the 1980s at the height of the Cold War.

The guide who recommends my book is Alistair McCann, and the other guide in the bunker in Portadown this afternoon was Colin Woods.

I am flattered and amazed that Alistair McCann is recommending this book 32 years after it was first published in 1984, which is half a lifetime away.

At the time, I was chairing both the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Christian CND, and writing a post-graduate theology thesis comparing different attitudes in the Roman Catholic Church on nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament.

As a consequence of a late night meeting in Sean MacBride’s home, Roebuck House, with Todd Andrews and Captain John Feehan, I was also commissioned to write my first book, which was published by Mercier Press in 1984 with a title that now seems very twee to me, Do You Want to Die for NATO?

The ‘chilling map’ in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ based on my book

Some years ago, the Belfast Telegraph published a “chilling map” that shows how Northern Ireland was marked for a nuclear Armageddon during the Cold War.

The report said the targets were pinpointed in Northern Ireland in 1980 in case the Kremlin decided to conquer the UK, and cited as its source my book Do You Want to Die for NATO?

The report went on to say: “Comerford said that at the same time the Soviets drew their map, British defence experts held secret maps in Belfast during the 1980s showing the spots they thought were likely to be hit by doomsday attacks. Belfast was first on the Soviet hit-list — with the city and international airports marked for attack.”

Ballykelly army barracks and the former US naval facilities at Lishally, both around Co Derry, were also marked down, and an airfield at St Angelo near Enniskillen, regularly used by the US air force in World War II, was marked for destruction by Russians. “To top it off, the Sperrin mountains that span Derry and Tyrone were primed for atomic holocaust because they were home to US Navy transmitters.”

The report went on to say: “In British intelligence maps, Comerford says RAF facilities in Bishopscourt, Downpatrick, were open to attack, along with army transmission hotspots in Antrim and Derry. A sea strike at Inishtrahull off the Donegal coast was also predicted, as was the bombing of military headquarters in Lisburn. And, with its military communications facilities, Omagh was regarded as a top target for the Reds in the event of nuclear war.”

The Telegraph said: “Comerford revealed the Soviets were most likely to have used the one-megaton SS-4 missile or an SS-11 intercontinental ballistic torpedo. Both warheads have a terrifying nuclear payload 50 times worse than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.”

It went to say Comerford said: “The strategic position of Ireland, the facilities offered by ports and airports, and the fuel stocks make it highly likely that Ireland will be a target.” He said the Republic was just as much at risk as Northern Ireland.

The reporter pointed out that I wrote this book in 1984, “but his warnings are now more relevant than ever.”

The book was written 32 years ago when I was 32. It is sad to realise that it is still relevant today. I was saying this afternoon that world tensions are as heightened today as they were at the height of the Cold War.

Perhaps the guides in the bunker need an up-to-date version of my book from the 1980s. If Mercier Press ask me to update it, I might consider renaming it: Do You Want to Die for Trump?

Perhaps a new edition may need to be called ‘Do You Want to Die for Trump?’