October 27, 2021
Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 13, a powerful lesson in prayer.
The psalm is one of my favorites because it feels so “real”. The one who prays, presumably David, needs an answer to his prayer- and is not perceiving one. (emphasis on “perceiving”)
So the psalmist sounds a bit like someone desperately calling customer service to see why a life-saving order has not arrived😉:
How long, LORD? Will you utterly forget me?
Psalm 13: 2, 4
How long will you hide your face from me?
..
Look, answer me, O LORD, my God!
Give light to my eyes that I may not sleep in death
But as the psalmist continues to pray, an evolution of grace and understanding occurs. There is a realization that the kind of answer expected is one according to human measurement … one that will make the pray-er look triumphant in the eyes of his enemies:
Answer me, Lord my God …
Psalm 13: 4-5
Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed,”
lest my foes rejoice at my downfall.
But the depth of our relationship with God is not determined by what our enemies think … or even our friends. That sacred relationship is rooted in our grateful recognition and trusting immersion in God’s ever-present mercy and love for us:
But I trust in your mercy.
Psalm 13: 6-7
Grant my heart joy in your salvation,
I will sing to the LORD,
Who has dealt bountifully with me!
God always answers us. We may not have the capacity to perceive the answer because it is not the one we expected or wished for. But the truth is that through whatever “answer” unfolds to our prayer, God is leading us deeper into God’s heart.
Can we trust that? Can we yield to it? That is the “salvation” the psalmist ultimately prays for:
Sometimes we might hear a person say that they don’t know how to get started talking with God in prayer. They seem to feel it’s kind of like a blind date where you end up realizing you have nothing in common with each other.
Paul – in our reading from Romans says – no, wait a minute. God is already within you simply by the nature of your creaturehood. You are made of the very stuff of God. In fact, the Spirit of God deep within our souls is like the fiery magma from a volcano. It erupts from our love and prays for us to the Creator – if we will only let it.
Poetry: Praying by Mary Oliver
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
Music: Spirit Seeking Light and Beauty – by Janet Erskine Stuart, interpreted here by the Daughters of St. Paul (Lyrics below)
Spirit seeking light and beauty,
Heart still longing for your rest
In your search for understanding,
Only thus can you be blest,
Through the vastness of creation,
Though your restless thought may roam,
God is all that you can long for,
God is all creation’s home.
Taste and see God, feel and hear God,
Hope and grasp the unseen hand;
Though the darkness seem to hide you,
Faith and love can understand.
Loving Wisdom, guiding Spirit,
All our hearts are made anew.
Lead us through the land of shadows
‘Til we come to rest in you.
Lavish Mercy 