Psalm 93

The LORD is king, robed with majesty; the LORD is robed, girded with might. The world will surely stand in place, never to be moved.

Your throne stands firm from of old; you are from everlasting, LORD.

The flood has raised up, LORD; the flood has raised up its roar; the flood has raised its pounding waves.

More powerful than the roar of many waters, more powerful than the breakers of the sea, powerful in the heavens is the LORD.

Your decrees are firmly established; holiness belongs to your house, LORD, for all the length of days.


Last winter I participated in the Prayer and Life Workshop, which was created by Fr. Ignacio Larañaga, OFM Cap. The workshop was facilitated by Fr. James Doran, OMV, the parochial vicar of Holy Ghost. Fr. Doran learned how to teach the workshop while he was a missionary in South America. He served in Brazil for 18 years. The workshop lasted about three months and consisted of daily prayer exercises and a weekly meeting. It was valuable to my faith and prayer life in many ways, but one of the greatest benefits I received was learning how to pray the Psalms.

I had not previously given the Psalms too much thought. Of course I prayed the responsorial Psalm at Mass, and read through them on occasion. I knew that they formed the foundation of the Breviary and were the cornerstone on monastic and religions prayer. I knew their place in scripture and that they were prayed by Christ, the Apostles, Fathers and Doctors and all the Saints—but I didn’t really know them. I knew they were pious devotions, but I saw them fundamentally as part of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures, I didn’t see them as specifically Christian prayers. Now I do; and thanks to my closer relationship to the Psalms, I have come to appreciate more just how fundamentally integrated the Old and New Testaments are, and most especially, just how much the Old Testament is about Christ—He permeates every page.

Take a look at the Psalm above; I picked it at random. Ostensibly, it is about the dominion of the Lord over nature, it speaks of His power over the waters of the floods. Now this points very obviously to several events in the OT. First, it speaks to the creation where God separated the waters and called the dry land out of the flood. Then, it speaks to the Flood, and while we think of the Flood, we should recall the covenant with Noah. The Psalm also evokes Exodus, where the Power of God split the sea for the passage of Israel, and we should recall here covenant on Sinai. These three events, and these covenants, the Psalmist obviously had in mind when he composed the hymn to our God. However, this Psalm also speaks more directly and profoundly of Christ. Our Lord Jesus clearly demonstrated his dominion over water when he walked on the seas; however, He submitted to baptism by John. In this he showed a submission to the needs of His creation. In baptism the flood and the corresponding covenant are brought to their fullest expression. On the Cross, the Lord consented to die in the deluge with us and in baptism we die again with Him.

As we so recently witnessed in New Orleans, floods are frightening things. The natural world can be a terrible master, and we are subject to her. Despite the best laid plans of mice and men, the levees failed the Big Easy; nature reminded us of her dominion over us. It is good for the psalmist then to remind us that nature does not have the final say, that “The LORD is king, robed with majesty; the LORD is robed, girded with might. The world will surely stand in place, never to be moved.”

We need to remember that God is in command of all creation. At the same time we need to remember that in Our Lord Jesus, God establishes the eternal covenant whereby He suffers with us and defeats death; and through this defeat of death He unseats nature from her dominion over men so that nature is no longer Master but Brother Sun and Sister Moon.