In Praise of Little Things: An Advent Meditation
“The Birth of Jesus Advent Calendar and Nativity Scene,” by Italian paper artist Agostino Traini
Today’s lectionary reading from the Psalter, Psalm 117, is famous for reasons that, at first glance, may seem a bit embarrassing: for being the smallest and most unremarkable psalm in Israel’s prayer book. This is the psalm, with its two largely forgettable verses, that Christians skim or skip over. It deploys rather “meat and potato” imagery and it fails to do anything that the rhapsodic psalms on either side of it, Psalm 116 and 118, do far better.
How could this diminutive poem compete with such majestic phrases from Psalm 116, like verse 9, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”? How could it not get overshadowed by the Christologically inflected language of Psalm 118:22, “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner!”
Psalm 117 merely states what everyone already knows: Praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord.
And yet there it is. The author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, wills that it remain in the final edited version of the Psalter. As part of a small collection of “hallelujah psalms” (Pss. 111-118), Psalm 117 gets a seat at the hymnic table. It too gets to play a role in teaching Christians how to talk to God and how to listen to God. What role is that? It is to remind us of a central concern of God at Advent.
Psalm 117 reminds us that God does not despise the “little” things of this world. Just as he welcomes the little “praises” of this psalm, so too does he welcome a “little” tradesman like Joseph to play an uncommon role in the fatherly care of his Son. He welcomes “little” blue-collar workers like shepherds to play the distinguished role of “First Disciples.” He welcomes a “little” teenage girl like Mary to be the Theotokos, whose son shall be born in the “littlest” town of Bethlehem.
We are reminded in this way that God also welcomes the “little” things of our own lives. Our little but faltering efforts at daily prayer, our little acts of obedience in the face of temptations to do otherwise, our little deeds of love that may go unnoticed—all such things please the Lord. The unremarkable people who possess no platform or prestige? The Lord blesses such as these and plenty more besides.
This particular season of Advent may be one of the most difficult for us as Christians in the early twenty-first-century. “Big things” and “large forces” may tempt us to believe that our little lives do not matter in the grand scheme of history. But Psalm 117 reminds us otherwise. We praise the Lord in word and in deed, no matter how “little” our words or deeds may be, confident that the God who comes to us “full of mercy and truth” treasures all such offerings.
PRAYER: O Lord, you who do not despise the day of small things, we offer up to you this day our little but faltering efforts at daily prayer, our little acts of obedience in the face of temptations to do otherwise, and our little deeds of love that may go unnoticed, and we ask that you would bless them so that we might know the joy of loving you in and through all the small things of our lives. In the name of the great I AM who became small for our sake. Amen.
Blythe Taylor on the rare day of brief snowfall in Houston, Texas
(This reflection was originally published on the Nashotah House Advent + Christmastide Devotional.)
