Consumerism and Psalm 120

In his General Audience of 4 May, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI continued the discussion of the Psalms as begun by his predecessor, John Paul II.

His comments, more fully detailed in the article Pope warns against idolatry of riches and comfort at Catholic World News, centered on Psalm 120 (Psalm 121 in many versions). The psalm praises God for the protection that He grants to His chosen people.

In his prepared remarks, the Holy Father noted:

This faith-filled profession of trust in God’s provident concern, which accompanies us at every moment of our lives, has resounded for centuries in the Church’s liturgy and in the prayers of her saints. May the Lord indeed protect us from every evil, and grant all that our hearts desire, "both now and for ever."

As he added in his extemporaneous remarks detailed in the CWN article, Benedict XVI explained the mssage of the psalm in terms of riches and comfort:

Here the Pontiff cautioned against the ambitions that men are tempted to regard as "the high points of life," involving the pursuit of worldly power and material goods. The believer, he said, must not allow those temptations to deflect his attention from God, nor to forget that "God will protect us with love at all times."

The key here is the point that our comfort comes from God through Jesus and not through consumerism and material possessions. Certainly this is not a new point, but in picking up where John Paul left off with the Psalms, Benedict XVI also picks up where his predecessor left off in the struggle against consumerism as the false be-all, end-all of human existence.

Psalm 120 is also an excellent example of parallelism found in Hebrew poetry.