PSALMS FOR TROUBLED TIMES

People are feeling very tense these days. The sources of anxiety have their roots in the prevailing political, racial, and censorial (or woke) ambiance in which we are living. Added to this mix are the everyday restrictions on our liberties and comforts imposed on us in the struggle to limit the spread of Covid-19, not to mention fear of contracting the virus that some people feel. There is a lot of anger, mistrust, second-guessing and concerns about the future of our society. Where do we turn for relief from our stress? 

I suggest that we turn to the Book of Psalms, the song book of both Judaism and Christianity. The Psalms were often composed in response to events in the psalmist’s personal life and in the life of Israel. Sometimes they were written to express admiration for God’s works and to praise him for his gifts. At other times they were written as laments for disasters that were seen as punishment for personal or national sins. The poets faced diverse situations and had different motivations for their compositions. The 150 Psalms of the Bible, like all Scripture, were written by human beings who in their creativity drew upon their talents, experience and faith, all the while writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Psalms were and are sung in both Jewish and Christian worship.

All the Psalms were written in the time between the establishment of the monarchy in Israel in the eleventh century up until the second century before the birth of Christ. About half of them are attributed to King David, one to Moses, two to Solomon, and others to more historically obscure authors. Although they are ancient, they continue to speak to conditions which God’s people face today, which is why they are useful for personal as well as public prayer. Almost every human emotion is expressed in the Psalms: anger, disappointment, doubt, joy, gratitude, praise, peace, condemnation, confidence, hope, despair, love and hate. The Psalms teach us how to offer our feelings to the Lord in prayer. In fact, we know that Jesus himself prayed the Psalms and sometimes attributed them to himself. The most poignant example is the prayer he spoke as he hung on the Cross, which he had memorized: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22).

Some of the Psalms form part of the corpus of prophecy of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament. When Jesus quoted from them, he spoke of himself. In the tradition of the Church, the Psalms of lament, which are deep expressions of pain and sorrow, are seen as expressive of the Passion of the Savior, while others anticipate his Resurrection, as does Psalm 71: “You who have made me see many sore troubles will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.” The Resurrection Psalm par excellence is Psalm 118, which is prayed every Sunday in the Liturgy of the Hours, the official prayer of the Church: “I was hard pressed and falling, but the Lord came to my help…The Lord’s right hand is raised; the Lord’s right hand works valiantly. I shall not die but live and declare the deeds of the Lord. The Lord chastised me harshly, but did not hand me over to death…This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!”

As the children of God it is our privilege and right to make the Psalms our own. As we pray them we unite our feelings with the Holy Spirit. If a particular Psalm does not express what we are feeling at that time, it does express what a brother or sister in Christ somewhere is feeling, and we may unite ourselves to their situation. The Psalms are the prayer of the universal Church. As St. Augustine wrote, who spent sixteen years writing a long commentary on the Psalms: “If the Psalm prays, you pray. If the Psalm laments, you lament. If the Psalm exalts, you rejoice. If it hopes, you hope. If it fears, you fear. Everything written here is a mirror for us.”


FATHER SCOTT