Evening Prayer on the 23rd day of the month sees Psalm 114 leading the Psalms Appointed for that Office.  It’s a short psalm, which is always helpful for those who are new to praying the psalms, and it explores the theme of hope in a curious way.

It begins and ends with pairs of verses that address something that God has done:

1 When Israel came out of Egypt,
and the house of Jacob from among a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah was God’s sanctuary,
and Israel his dominion.

7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 Who turned the hard rock into a pool of water,
and the flint stone into a springing well.

These book-ends frame this Psalm as a celebration of deliverance.  It looks back to the time of the exodus from Egypt, and proclaims…