The Unhidden God, a reflection on Psalm 111:6-10

We can discern historical references in this psalm. For example, we can read the provision of food in verse 5 to be the manna in the wilderness and the heritage of the nations to be the promised land, the covenant to be the specific covenant with those ancient Hebrews.


But the psalm is more than a history lesson about specific people in a specific place on a specific date. It also extends into our lives, in our time, in our places. We have learned of what God has done. We have received undeserved gifts ourselves.


Those ancient people trusted the Lord not only for gifts but for instruction on how to live. As the psalm puts it, they trusted in the precepts of the Lord. 


We can continue to pay attention to what God provides for us, and we can continue to pay attention to what God expects of us.


James Newsome, in Texts for Preaching, a Lectionary Commentary based on the NRSV-Year B writes:

The Epiphany season affirms that the old linkage between the deeds of God and the being of God is true...God has not remained hidden...but has stepped forth form the shadows, shaping and reshaping our world so that we may see the divine face. The Epiphany season marks the journey from Christmas to Good Friday and Easter, those most decisive moments in human history in which this self-revelation of God has occurred. In the incarnation and in the crucifixion and resurrection, God ... revealed a Deity whose concern for human life and whose involvement in human life--while proclaimed by Israel's teachers of old--achieved a new level of intimacy and immediacy.  

Lectio Divina: Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.