Psalm 37

Above:  Psalm 37

Image in the Public Domain

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POST XIV OF LX

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The Book of Common Prayer (1979) includes a plan for reading the Book of Psalms in morning and evening installments for 30 days.  I am therefore blogging through the Psalms in 60 posts.

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 226

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Psalm 37 encourages trust in God, who is greater than one’s enemies.  The faithful will inherit the land, the text repeats.

To trust in God can be difficult, especially when one needs most desperately to do it.  It is, however, possible via grace.  Related to trusting in God is the sage advice of verse 8:

Desist from anger and forsake wrath,

be not wrought up, it brings only harm.

–Mitchell J. Dahood translation

That is advice more Psalmists should have followed.  That is also counsel I have learned to take to heart and with which I have struggled.  It is advice with which I continue to struggle, for I am not of one mind on the topic.

The desire for vindication can lead one to self-destruction and to spiritual poisoning, if one goes about it the wrong way.  If I, for example, hold a grudge, I might not harm the person or persons with whom I am (perhaps justifiably) angry, but I will certainly harm myself.  What, then, is the benefit of the grudge?

Trusting in God may be difficult, but is definitely superior.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 8, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARY MACKILLOP, FOUNDER OF THE SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH OF THE SACRED HEART

THE FEAST OF SAINT DOMINIC, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS

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