Samuel Bray

The editors who assembled the Psalter were astute, and one way this can be seen is in the juxtapositions and trajectories implicit in the placement of the imprecatory psalms. Consider, for example, Psalm 137, which is appointed to be said on the evening of the 28th day. Here, perched between Psalm 119 and the lyrical psalms of ascent, on the one hand; and on the other, the hymns of praise that end the book, such as Psalm 148, is a psalm with one of the most blood-curdling lines in all of holy writ: Psalm 137’s final verse.

Easter is the culmination, not just of Holy Week, but really of all the seasons since Advent. Now Easter has finally arrived. But what’s next?

In the historic Western eucharistic lectionary, the epistles and gospels of the first half of Lent emphasize our struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil, but there is a turn in the Fourth Sunday in Lent. From here on, we are pointing toward the cross.