Just add a century from No 16 last week. Skipping over a whole hundred psalms! Amazing – and there are 50 more if you do not count that old No 151. Such a rich treasury of imagery, inspiration, prayer, encouragement and song.
Psalm 116, like 30 and others, is a paean of thanks for deliverance from the power of darkness and, in particular in this psalm depending on the translation, the hold, anguish or entangling cords of the grave.
So the psalmist resolves to walk in the divine presence in the land of the living (v.9) – a fine suggestion.
The second half of the psalm is an act of dedication, so strongly felt that the psalmist’s declarations of trust and invocation are to be made ‘in the presence of all God’s people’, which we shall do in singing this psalm.
The Music, resonating to the awareness of a listening and caring God, is a simple antiphon (PFAS 116D) declaring ‘I love the Lord who has heard my cry’ (v.1).
Verses are sung by two cantors antiphonally to a tone which is close to the response tune.
Singers already have music but call if you wish to join. We celebrate the induction of Presbytery Minister Rev Geoff Wellington on Friday evening at Yarralumla then present the same setting at South Woden on the following Sunday 4 May.
Psalms in the South 