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Daily Scripture Passage: Psalms 45, 47, and 48

Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with a try of joy. — Psalm 47:1

For most of the year, including Lent, we pray the Psalms morning and evening in a seven-week rotation. Today, we’re meant to pray Psalms 45, 47, and 48. They would have come up in the rotation today no matter which season we found ourselves in.

Nothing in any of them sounds like Lent. They are full of praise because the Church greets every morning’s sunrise with delight. Day inevitably follows upon night, and (to borrow a phrase from another Psalm) we are glad. It is not only a cosmological fact, but also an existential fact. Day follows upon night.

In the middle of the night—cosmological or existential—there is no reason to believe that light will dawn except that we have seen it happen so many times. From experience, we know that it is true.

During Lent, we do not act as if we do not know. We know that God’s forgiveness inevitably follows upon our sin and repentance. We know that the tomb is empty. We know that the risen Christ lives among us and in us. Lent is not a time for spiritual amnesia.

If anything, Lent is a time to clear away distractions that keep us from remembering the truth. We “give things up for Lent” to create a mental space to remember what we might otherwise forget. Day does inevitably follow night. Forgiveness does inevitably follow sin and repentance. Life does inevitably follow death. From experience, we know that it is true.