In God we trust

NOTE: For some reason, I found the following Psalm particularly striking this morning while our monastic community was reciting it during Vigils. Surely, in one way or another, it is a prayer we can all relate to and make our own. The larger question is this: Can we also make it Christ's? Saint Jerome once said of it: "This Psalm shows Christ in his passion." So, what does it mean if it is both my (your) prayer and also Christ's? Something to meditate on ...

-- Br. Francis

Psalm 56

Have mercy on me God, people crush me;

they fight me all day long and oppress me.

My foes crush me all day long,

for many fight proudly against me.

When I fear, I will trust in you,

in God whose word I praise.

In God I trust, I shall not fear:

what can mortals do to me?

All day long they distort my words,

all their thought is to harm me.

They band together in ambush,

track me down and seek my life.

You have kept an account of my wanderings;

you have kept a record of my tears;

are they not written in your book?

Then my foes will be put to flight

on the day that I call to you.

This I know, that God is on my side.

In God, whose word I praise,

in the Lord, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I shall not fear:

what can mortals do to me?

I am bound by the vows I have made you.

O God, I will offer you praise
for you rescued my soul from death,

you kept my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk in the presence of God

and enjoy the light of the living.

PSALM-PRAYER: Jesus, you trusted in your Father's protection and kept silent when you were tormented. Give us that same confidence and we will gladly suffer with you and for you, offering the Father our sacrifice of praise and walking with him in the light of the living.

-- Adapted from the Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. 4, p.892