The Festal Shout (Psalm 89:15)

 


Friday, August 8, 2025


Psalm 89:1-18

2 Samuel 16:5-19

John 12:12-36a


Observance: Dominic, priest and friar (d. 1221)


The Festal Shout (Psalm 89:15)


Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
    who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face


I’ve never been in an English soccer crowd, but I’ve seen videos of them. It almost makes me willing to drop my rugby chauvinism when I hear their brilliantly creative team chants and songs. And I have heard the legends (as I am sure we all have) about the loyalty Englishmen hold towards their local soccer team.


This is what came to mind when I came across this verse in today’s Psalm, about the blessing on those “who know the festal shout”. A group of people who know the special words, because they are the people who walk in the light of the Lord’s face. If we could take the Psalmist’s poetic license and suggest a “festal shout” might not only be spoken words, but an inner movement of the heart, then I think we might get an idea of what is going on here.


Christians believe that, when it comes to prayer, there is not a special set of words that will magically make God do wonderful things for them. We trust that the Holy Spirit is praying for us, in groans too deep for words, and that the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, and that our Father hears the prayers we ask in faith. It is not the words themselves, but the soul who prays them, that matters.


And so we are sort of like members of a crowd of English soccer fans, in that we are in the “in group”, because we know the words. But we are also not really, because the words are not our own, but the words of our Lord on our behalf. Our membership is purely by the grace of the Lord Jesus. And so perhaps the reason why our shout is so festal is because of that free grace, that we walk in the light of the face of the Lord simply because he loves us, and has made us his own.


Have you ever felt really confident in your prayers? Have you ever felt like your prayers were empty of all meaning and power? How might a meditation on the grace of the Lord Jesus influence your prayers?


O Holy One, your strength, wonders, faithfulness, might, peace and grace are beyond the limits of our language. Grant us your Holy Spirit that we may pray not as we are able, but as we ought, for you are the glory of our strength, and by you we are exalted.

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