Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

As we enter this new year and this Epiphany season, the lectionary asks us to remember God’s goodness to us. Today’s lessons include Psalm 117/118, the psalm that incorporates the repeating refrain, “For His mercy endures forever.”

This psalm is a beautiful narrative of God’s deliverance despite the enemies that surround us—all of the manifestations of sin, death, and demonic powers. They swarm around us “like bees” and “blaze like a fire of thorns.”

The purpose of all this enmity is to bring us back to God, to cause us to rely on his mercy:

“It is better to rely on the Lord,
Than to put any trust in the flesh.”

Who is the center of this return to God? It is “the stone which the builders rejected” which “has become the chief cornerstone.” This is the one about whom it was said

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

I love that this psalm, written in the time of David and Asaph, speaks so clearly about Christ.

Today, I am enjoying immensely this Arabic setting of Psalm 117/118, sung by the talented young Syrian chanter Ribale Wehbé, here accompanied by Romanian chanters. This highly evocative sound reminds us that Arabic liturgical chant has been around for a very long time, much longer than English has been sung in church!

Yours in Christ,

—Justin