The Psalms

Each day during Morning and Evening Prayer as well as at Mass the psalms are key parts of the life of prayer for a Friar. Psalms speak to our journey, they speak of God's love and power, they can be cries for help, they are words of praise and joy, they are as relevant today as they were when they were written.

Over the course of my life journey a few psalms have served as anchors for me, especially Psalm 139 and Psalm 63. They have provided hope, they have reminded me of God's love and they speak to me about what is my core, what is at the heart of me.

Over the past week two other psalms have spoken to me and have aided me in the journey.

The first is Psalm 55, a line of it read:

Throw your cares on the Lord and the Lord will support you.

Well when I read that, I think my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I smiled and said, 'okay, okay God I get it you are always with me and do care very much.' Like as if I didn't know that but God knew I needed to hear those words that day.

Those words shaped the day and helped me to hear and respond to other words I needed to hear and situations I found myself in. It helped give words to where I am in this journey and again filled me with a deeper peace. I realized that I have been throwing my cares on the Lord and he has been listening and supporting me. Like I said I just needed a little reminder.

Thank you God for this reminder and for inviting and allowing me to throw my cares on you.
Thank you God for supporting me, giving me strength, courage and a rooted peace.

Psalm 90 is the second psalm, a verse of it reads:

O Lord,

You have been our refuge

from one generation to the next.

Before the mountains were born

or the earth or the world brought forth,

You are God, without beginning or end.

These words started my day and what a beautiful way to start the day, a reminder of how awesome and powerful and loving our God is. God's love is so grand and magnificent and yet so personal and intimate.

How awesome that our God is our hope and shelter, how awesome that our God created the world around us and how awesome that our God has always been.

These words from the psalms are blessings that fill me with awe and bring me peace. I am always with my awesome God and I am (and we all are) God's beloved and God is mine (ours).

 

As Lent draws near may these psalms be guides for the journey