Links for today’s readings:
Jul 17 Read: Isaiah 46 Listen: (2:12) Read: Psalms 114-115 Listen: (2:18)
Links for this weekend’s readings:
Jul 18 Read: Isaiah 47 Listen: (2:52) Read: Psalm 116 Listen: (1:34)
Jul 19 Read: Isaiah 48 Listen: (3:39) Read: Psalm 117-118 Listen: (2:52)
Scripture Focus: Psalm 114
1 When Israel came out of Egypt,
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.
Reflection: Languages, Ladders, and Oppression
By John Tillman
Psalm 114 is a victory psalm in which God reverses curses and oppression.
Like many victory psalms, it references the Exodus story, but has a unique focus. The psalmist doesn’t mention escaping slavery or even the genocidal murder of newborns. They escape people of a “foreign tongue.” It’s an interesting twist. In Egypt, the Hebrews were “foreigners.” Wasn’t their language the “foreign” one in Egypt?
The psalmist is highlighting a common experience in history. Language differences are often weaponized. When immigrating to a new country or when their own country is conquered or ruled by others, many are mistreated using language.
Elsewhere in scripture, prophetic warnings about the coming exile tell Israel they will be conquered by lands with “foreign speech” and experience discrimination and mistreatment (Deut 28.49; Isa 28.11; Isa 33.19; Jer 5.15). Federico Villanueva, in the Asia Bible Commentary, relates this psalm to the language oppression native Filipinos experienced under Spain’s colonial rule of the Philippines.
Historically, language discrimination and oppression come in many forms and levels of severity. Often, government services, education, or even religious services are only provided in one language. Many have had their native languages banned in public or at work. Many have been persecuted for speaking native languages in their own communities, schools, or even homes. Many have been considered intellectually inferior due to their language.
This didn’t just happen in ancient Egypt or the colonized Philippines. It happens today. Many today use language discrimination as a mask to conceal and justify racial prejudices.
God led his people out of Egypt, where even the language was oppressive, into a land that was a sanctuary. Dangerous chaos waters fled before them and mountains leapt joyfully, welcoming them. Wordless wonders welcomed them home and they were commanded to pass on the blessing. Because Israel suffered as foreigners, they were to welcome and not mistreat foreigners.
God’s children become, like our God, curse-reversers. What God does on a cosmic scale, his children do on a community and individual scale. When God saves us from sin, oppression (both that which persecutes us and that which we perpetuate) becomes our enemy. Every form of oppression is born from sin. It is sin, made tangible.
When God rescues you, don’t pull up the ladder behind you. Turn to rescue people from what you escaped. As God’s children, work so that, “in his name all oppression must cease.”
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Turn to me and have pity on me, for I am left alone and in misery. The sorrows of my heart have increased; bring me out of my troubles. Look upon my adversity and misery and forgive me all my sin. — Psalm 25:15-17
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
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