Asterisk - March 21, 2025

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 95* 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; PM Psalm 73
Jer. 5:1-9; Rom. 2:25-3:18; John 5:30-47

Has a tiny detail ever opened your eyes in a totally new understanding? One little mark grabbed my attention this week. In the rotation of readings for the Daily Office prayers, I noticed that Psalm 95 is marked with an asterisk every Friday in Lent. I felt curious and wondered how many of us noticed or know what that asterisk means!

That little star subtly denotes that the entirety of Psalm 95 is to be prayed during Morning Prayer, and the footnote explains that it is to be used as the invitatory, or introductory, psalm. The invitatory psalm sets the tone for worship. A portion of Psalm 95 (v. 1-7, titled the Venite (meaning “come”), because that is the first word of the prayer in Latin) is one of these options. For each Friday in Lent, we say all eleven verses, somberly remembering that Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

What does this asterisk open for us? These are the last four verses of Psalm 95 that bring a reflective and penitential tone to our prayers:

Harden not your hearts, as your forebears did in the wilderness,
at Meribah, and on that day at Massah, when they tempted me.

They put me to the test,
though they had seen my works.

Forty years long I detested that generation and said,
"This people are wayward in their hearts; they do not know my ways."

So I swore in my wrath,
"They shall not enter into my rest."

Do you recall the ancient story referenced in this psalm? In the Hebrew scriptures, there was much written about the Israelites time of exodus from their homes in Judea into slavery in Babylon. The journey back to their homeland through the desert was fraught with tension and trials. Moses, doing his best to listen to the guidance of YHWH, led the Israelites who were only half-heartedly following him. There was intense complaining and dissention. “Are we there yet?” “I am tired!” “I am thirsty!” “Is this the right way?”

Moses went to God in prayer, pleading for direction and help. As we read in Exodus 17, the Lord answered Moses: take some of your leaders with you and go ahead of the people. Take your staff with you and hit the rock at Horeb where I, the Lord, will be standing. Water will emerge from the rock and the people will have something to drink.

Moses followed the directions of the Divine, with witnesses to his actions – and water flowed from the rock. Relief! And so, he named the place Massah (Hebrew, meaning “temptation” or “testing”) and Meribah (Hebrew, meaning “contention” or “quarrel”)…because the people were testing and quarreling with YHWH.

This is the lens of those verses from Psalm 95 – to remember those hardened hearts and the angst of that hard, exhausting time. To recall the dissatisfaction among the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. To remember when others have not trusted God. Why? Because the psalmist knew those stories of yore described a people not too different from those of the present time. While our prayers are to draw near to God so that we may hear that Divine voice, we often get in our own way.

Lent is a time for deep honesty within ourselves. It is a time to remove the spaces where we persist in quarreling and testing God. We desire to be lost and wayward no longer. And there are reasons and seasons when we are in the mire of the wilderness. In those windows of woe, we cry out “Kyrie eleison” – “Lord have mercy.”

May you feel that mercy through your Lenten experience.

Katherine+

Reflection and Challenge 

How might you live into Lenten Fridays differently? It can be a penitential day, or maybe a day when you choose to fast from a practice that clutters your mind or heart. Perhaps you take a walk with the intention to open your heart to God. Or sit still in a chair and breathe intentionally with a name of God upon your lips.