Portraits of the Immeasurable Gift

I am always grateful when another person sees something in scripture I have missed. Biblical scholar Artur Weiser worked for years on his commentary on the book of Psalms. A man of keen intelligence and deep piety, he produced a work that reads as if he prayed every paragraph he wrote. When he came to Psalm 148, he wrote exactly what I expected he would. In spare, stunning language he highlighted the all-encompassing Praise the Lord surging through this psalm (Alleluia! in the magnificently energetic Hebrew tongue). Line by line, Weiser gradually assembled a whole thundering cosmos of praise.

To my surprise, he then did more. Weiser turned to a single phrase near the psalm’s end as cause for all the praise: “He has raised up a horn for his people.” This, he wrote, was the horn of salvation. The Hebrew listeners would have understood instantly. Why all this praise? Because the Lord God is giving salvation, a gift that reaches all realms of creation. And at its deepest level, Weiser noted, the psalm points far beyond itself to the salvation the heavenly host announced to the entire world at the birth of Jesus.

The Bible offers multiple portraits of the immeasurable gift we receive at Christmas. No single image can contain it. In coming days, we will look at several biblical portraits. Most are tightly focused. Today’s calls for our widest vision: A prayerful scholar looked at Psalm 148, and he saw all heaven and earth break into praise at the coming of Jesus. I ponder this. As I do, and as Christmas now approaches, I hear a gentle invitation for us all to pause and consider the immensity of the gift that is coming.