The Holy Father continued his ongoing
catechesis on the Psalms today, this time speaking
about the first part of Psalm 143, which he called
"The king's prayer for victory and
peace."
Calling on his audience to bear in mind the
historical context in which the Psalm was written,
Pope Benedict said that it was clear "that the
king who appears no longer has the profile of a
Davidic sovereign.”
Noting that “the Hebrew royal line had
ended with the Babylonian exile of the sixth
century BC…he represents the luminous and glorious
figure of the Messiah, whose victory is no longer
warlike and political but an intervention of
freedom against evil."
The Pope said that while the hymn begins
with a string of praises exalting the greatness of
the Lord, before His omnipotence "the psalmist,
despite his regal dignity, feels weak and
fragile.”
“He makes a profession of humility,”
Benedict pointed out, “describing himself as a
'passing shadow' ... immersed in the flow of
fleeting time and marked by the limits of his
status as a created being."
The major question, the Holy Father said,
is, "why does God concern Himself and think of
such a poor and lowly creature?”
The answer comes by “the great bursting
forth of the divinity; this so-called theophany is
accompanied by a series of cosmic elements and
historical events that all tend to celebrate the
transcendence of the supreme King of life, the
universe and history."
Benedict cited the early Christian writer
Origen who, in a commentary on this psalm, wrote
that, "Lord, you cannot save the misery that is
man if You do not take that misery upon Yourself.
... You came down, you lowered the heavens and
stretched out Your hand from on high, you deigned
to take upon Yourself the flesh of man, and many
believed in You."
The Holy Father ended his address with a
note of hope, saying: "The psalm, which began with
our discovery of being weak and far from divine
splendor, reaches a surprising conclusion: near us
is the God-Emmanuel, Who for Christians has the
loving face of Jesus Christ,
God-made-man."
