Today’s responsorial Psalm is Psalm 33 of which only parts are given in the readings. As I read the Psalm, as well as the reading from Genesis 42-43 this morning, I could not help but feel an inner tension. The common element in both the Genesis reading and Psalm 33 is famine. In Genesis 42-43, Joseph’s brothers have gone down into Egypt to get grain in order to escape famine. Psalm 33.18-19 (NRSV, note the end of verse 19) reads as follow:

18 Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 to deliver their soul from death,
and to keep them alive in famine.

The famine in Genesis appears to be a natural phenomenon, whereas the one in Psalm 33 may be caused by siege due to references to armies earlier in the text (vv. 16-17). This all seems fairly straightforward until one goes back to verses 6 and 7 and reads:

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
he put the deeps in storehouses.

The Psalm begins with the Lord being extolled for his creation, especially his work in forming the seas. The question then emerges concerning how good the Lord actually made the world if he made it to be susceptible to famine. I am familiar with all of the theological explanations for this, but none of them appear in this passage. The author simply moves from the Lord being great and wonderful for creating the world the way that he did and allowing none of his plans to be brought to nought to trusting in the Lord to save from famine. The result of all this is trusting the Lord who created a world susceptible to famine to save from famine.

I am not trying to say that there are no explanations for this. I am just noting that none of the explanations seem to be here. This just seems to be a tension that the author of Psalm 33 has come to live with, such much so that it is not even noted as a problem.