For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.
I
All you peoples, clap your hands;
shout to God with joyful cries.
For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
the great king over all the earth,
Who made people subject to us,
nations under our feet,
Who chose our heritage for us,
the glory of Jacob, whom he loves.
II
God has gone up with a shout;
the Lord, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
III
For God is king over all the earth;
sing hymns of praise.
God rules over the nations;
God sits upon his holy throne.
The princes of the peoples assemble
with the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God,
highly exalted.
Psalms 47: 1-10
“All you peoples, clap your hands;” sounds good to me! This psalm reminds me of someone I encountered this weekend. I attended the Greater Cincinnati Catholic Women’s Conference, which was great. This psalm reminds me of one of the speakers.
Sister Bernadette is a young woman, actually a year younger than my daughter, and I just love her spirit! I have never met anyone who so clearly expresses the eternal joy God wants for us like Sister Bernadette does in her every expression. It’s absolutely contagious!
Her talk was called “Where Will You Find Him,” but she shared a little about her life. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother raised 5 children (all daughters? I’m not sure if I remember that detail correctly, or not) on the meager child support they got from their dad.
Sister told us about asking her mom for new clothes because she was outgrowing what she had. Her mother answered with a familiar line, “Ask your Father.” …but she didn’t mean the man paying them child support, she meant the Father in Heaven. Sister Bernadette remembers praying and almost right away someone came by the house with a basket of clothes to donate.
She said that’s the way things often worked as she was growing up, and she was so grateful to her mother for teaching her to pray, to turn to God with all her needs.
Ultimately, Sister craved happiness. As a young teenager, she did what young teenagers do; she tried to find happiness in the material things of this life. Of course that didn’t work, but to her credit, she actually realized it!
The first time she experienced the kind of happiness she wanted was on a visit to her sister, who was entering a convent. She, herself, entered the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George at age 19. Ten years later, she was an inspirational speaker at an inspirational event!
So how perfect is it to land on this psalm today? Having encountered Sister Bernadette, I more fully understand what it looks like to “shout to God with joyful cries.” Today, let’s “sing praise to God,” for the joy we have found so far. And let’s pray that God will keep us on the path to enduring joy!