VATICAN - The Pope’s teaching on psalm 131: “a celebration of God-Emanuel who is with his creatures, lives with them and blesses them as long as they remain united with him in truth and justice”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - At the Wednesday general audience this morning, Pope Benedict XVI continued his reflection begun last week on Psalm 131: “Election of David and Sion” (Vespers Thursday week 3: Ps 131,11.13-14.17-18). The Pope said this second part of the psalm “evokes an important event in the history of Israel: the Ark of the Covenant is taken to Jerusalem”, as ordered by King David. “In fact the King had sworn that he would not reside in the royal palace until he had found a home for the Ark of the Covenant, the sign of the Lord’s presence with his people”.
“That promise made by the sovereign is now answered with the promise from God: «The Lord promised David he would never withdraw his word» … the promise and gift of God, which has nothing magic about it, calls for a humanity’s faithful and industrious response in a dialogue which interlaces two freedoms, the divine and the human.” The psalm then praises “both the wondrous works of God and the fidelity of Israel. In fact the people will experience God’s presence in their midst: he will be as one of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a citizen who lives with the other citizens the vicissitudes of history, but who offers the power of his blessing”. God will bless harvests, care for the poor, extend his mantle of protection over his priests, he will ensure that all the faithful live with joy and confidence, in particular he will bless David and his descendants.
As in the first part of the psalm, also in the second part we have the entrance of the figure of the «Consacrated one», in Hebrew «the Messiah», “and this ties the descendance of David to messianic teaching which, read in the light of Christ, finds full actuation in the figure of Jesus Christ. Psalm 131 becomes thus a celebration of God-Emanuel who is with his creatures , he lives with them and blesses them as long as they remain united with him in truth and justice. The spiritual heart of this hymn is already a prelude to St John’s proclamation: «The Word was made flesh and lived among us ».”
Concluding his catechesis the Pope said “the beginning of this second part of psalm 131 was used by the Fathers of the Church to describe the incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Virgin Mary” and he quoted Saint Ireneus who spoke of the prophecy of Isaiah about the Virgin giving birth. “In the psalm the mystery of God living with us, becoming one with us in the Incarnation, appears and is visible. And this fidelity of God and our confidence in the changes in history are our joy (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 21/9/2005, righe 28, parole 459)