Psalm 121
1 I raise my eyes toward the mountains. From where will my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.
3 God will not allow your foot to slip; your guardian does not sleep.
4 Truly, the guardian of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps.
5 The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade at your righthand.
6 By day the sun cannot harm you, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will guard you from all evil, will always guard your life.
8 The LORD will guard your coming and going both now and forever.
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This was the responsorial psalm at Sunday's mass, and it really struck me as a measuring stick for my own prayer life.
Do I truly depend on God? Does my help come from Him? Do I KNOW IN MY HEART that if I rely on Him, He will not allow my foot to slip? That he will be my guardian from evil? Both now and forever? These are the words of someone with a deep faith, the type of faith that can "move mountains."
This is the target. This is what I have set my sights on, for my own relationship with Christ. I want to rely on Him completely. I want to fully place my life in His hands. Just today at mass, I asked Him to grow this faith inside me.
I spent much of my life thinking of the Psalms as ancient prayers that really don't have anything to do with me. I was so wrong. The psalms are timeless, looking to the past and the future, and they tell the story of God's people throughout salvation history. Many of them, like this one, tell of a higher relationship with God that can be achieved on this earth if we strive for it. They tell the faith of David - the man God said was " a man after my own heart."
How can you not want to be like that?
PS - Don't take my word for it. Click the link for what the Catechism says.
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p4s1c1a1.htm#2585
