Ps 113 (Time Becoming Sabbath)

Hallelujah

Praise / Yhwh’s servants

                Praise Yhwh’s name

Let Yhwh’s name / be blessed

                From now on / and for evermore

From the sun’s rising / to its setting

                Let Yhwh’s name / be praised

In the first stanza the psalmist contemplates the praise of Yhwh’s name encompassing all of time. It occurs now, but it stretches into the Forever. It is not merely the speaking of Yhwh’s name, however. By praising Yhwh’s name, Yhwh is made present. The psalmist is therefore calling for a sanctification of time itself, for Yhwh’s very presence to saturate time and make it holy. There is, however, an important exception to this—the psalmist only calls upon Yhwh’s name to sanctify—to be in the midst of—the daytime. He calls for Yhwh to be praised from the sun’s rising to its setting—but not during the night. Genesis takes a similar view of the night. During creation, and the separation of light from darkness, only the light is called “good”, not the night. There is a sense here that Yhwh’s presence is not to enter the “time of darkness”, that that arena is not to be blessed, but is instead a profane time. We will return, later, to how the psalmist points toward a time when the night will not be sanctified but removed, when “all will be light”, when there will be no darkness or shadow.

What is important to stress here too is that Yhwh’s sanctifying of time through his presence occurs in and through the act of praise and blessing. The heart of Yhwh’s people is itself a revelation of Yhwh. Their praise of Yhwh, their blessing of Yhwh, expresses the way in which Yhwh’s presence would come into time itself. It would come in as an act of praise and of blessing. It is a festival, a banquet. This is absolutely crucial to keep in mind. When Yhwh comes to Time, he comes through Praise and Blessing. They are the gateways, so to speak, the doors of time through which Yhwh will pass.

And when Yhwh passes through time’s gateway, and he remains into the Forever, he co-exists in the Forever through his servant’s forever-praise and forever-blessing. In other words, praise and blessing are not a gateway through which Yhwh passes and then leaves behind. They are the vehicle of his forever Presence. This is an astonishing vision—one in which time itself, when it is impregnated with Yhwh’s presence, becomes praise and blessing. Time becomes Glory. His presence becomes stitched into time itself. Time becomes Sabbath.