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Holy Week · Holy Thursday: Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper · Year C

Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18 (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16)

What Shall I Return

April 13, 2028

The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek (modello), Peter Paul Rubens
The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek (modello), Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1626Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Wikimedia Commons)
A quick oil sketch for a tapestry: Melchizedek brings out bread and wine from a doorway above, and Abraham's soldiers crowd the steps.I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.Peter Paul RubensRubens (1577-1640) ran the busiest workshop in Europe from Antwerp and was a working diplomat besides. His religious painting carries the same physical energy as his hunts and his mythologies.Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Wikimedia Commons)The oldest art museum in Texas, grown very large on oil money, and free on Thursdays.Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Wikimedia Commons)
Roman Lectionary
GospelJohn 13:1-15Jn 13:1-15
Second Reading1 Cor. 11:23-261 Cor 11:23-26
First ReadingExod. 12:1-8, 11-14Ex 12:1-8, 11-14
Responsorial PsalmPs. 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18 (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16)Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18 (cf. 1 Cor 10:16)Alt. Psalmcf. 1 Corinthians 10:16cf. 1 Cor 10:16

Overview & Insights

“I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.” (Psalm 116:13)

Psalm 116 is a thanksgiving for rescue from death, and in Jewish practice it belongs to the Hallel (Psalms 113 to 118) sung at Passover, the psalms most likely meant when the Synoptics report that Jesus and the disciples sang a hymn before going out to the Mount of Olives (Mark 14:26). The Greek and Latin versions divide the psalm in two at v. 10, so older citations of this section appear as Psalm 115. The antiphon is not drawn from the psalm at all but from 1 Corinthians 10:16, which reads the psalmist’s “cup of salvation” (v. 13) through the cup of the eucharist. What the selected verses keep is a vocabulary of return: the cup lifted, the sacrifice of thanksgiving offered, vows paid in the presence of all the people (vv. 13, 17-18). Verse 15, on the death of the faithful, sits inside that thanksgiving rather than alongside it.

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Take it further: Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18 (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16)

Commentary

Commentary on Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19Commentary on Ps 116:1-2, 12-19 Working Preacher

Luther Seminary's Maundy Thursday commentary on the cup of salvation, the one Lutheran voice for this passage.

Psalm 116Ps 116 Haydock Commentary Online

The classic Catholic Douay-Rheims commentary reads the psalmist's cup of salvation as a figure of the Eucharistic chalice.

Background & Word Study

Psalms 116Ps 116 Sefaria

Gives the Hebrew text of the psalm the Church prays over the Passover cup on the night of the Last Supper.

The Church Fathers

Exposition on Psalm 116 (Augustine)Exposition on Ps 116 (Augustine) NewAdvent

Augustine's exposition ties the cup of salvation directly to Christ's question about drinking the cup he drinks.

Worship & Prayers

Maundy Thursday Journey with Jesus

A poem and prayer for the night of the Lord's Supper that fits the psalm's tone of grateful self-offering.

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