Category: Speaking to the Soul

Psalm 31 is like talk therapy with God. The psalmist lets every thought and emotion spill into God’s presence.

“Pray continually” (CEB) or “Pray without ceasing” (NRSV). At first blush it sounds like an impossible command. Our consciousness must be busy with many things. We have to work, think, even sleep. How can we pray continually, without ceasing?

When old ideas lose energy, when relationships wane, when institutions crumble, when things unravel, when we feel decay, when understanding fails — “stand up and raise your heads.”

Jesus and Isaiah speak to our contemporary political and economic scene. Right now we are in a debate. How will we act to restore prosperity to a nation with high unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, increased poverty, struggling schools and a large public debt?

For those of us who read the Daily Office, Wednesday often means that one of our Psalms will be a portion of Psalm 119, the longest psalm in the Psalter. For a long time I dreaded these verses. They seemed to praise something I was trying to escape from…