Mocking The devil

I almost cracked up at Mass yesterday when we started singing Michael Joncas's well-worn setting of psalm 91, "On Eagle's Wings." You know it from funerals if nothing else.

I found it funny because this is the psalm quoted by the devil in the Gospel:

Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”

It's always good to remember that the devil is perfectly happy for have us quote scripture and behave religiously, as long as we do it his way. So maybe it's good that we sang the psalm he quoted in order to redeem it for ourselves.