Freudian Slip, Malaprop or Unintended Truism

Yesterday’s Psalter reading was Psalm 98 and the reader erroneously read Verse 9 as:

Let the rivers clap their hands,*

and let the hells (immediately corrected to hills) ring out with joy before the Lord,

when He comes to judge the earth.

I was struck by the appropriateness of this faux pas and dwelt on the message this might offer us for consideration.

“Let the Hells ring out with joy before the Lord,

when He comes to judge the earth…”

For, might that not be the case? Who do you say He is, and what do you hear as His message? Will it be one of judgment or rather one of grace and forgiveness as a result of His atonement?  

In the denomination where I was raised the answer would be judgment. Fortunately, in another denomination, I later developed a personal understanding of grace that’s much wider than that. For I am a sinner, occasionally even unrepentant and therefore hope not to be judged for my sins but rather saved by grace, unearned and undeserved but God’s gift none the less.

So, Yes: “Let the Hells ring out with joy before the Lord, when He comes to judge the earth.” And in turn finds all forgiven.

Thanks be to God!