But their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night. (Psalm 1:2)
Today, I begin the waltz through psalms, and at the pace set by the “Pray through the Bible in 365 Days”, Psalms will take about a month. I must admit that I’ve only recently warmed up to the psalms. How many ways can you express joy, anger or fear? But after a couple of years where my life has taken some unexpected turns, I have come to appreciate the nuanced expressions a little more. Additionally, my tradition’s practice of daily set morning prayer includes a psalm every day. Over the years, I’ve prayed the psalms numerous times. I’m not getting to the place where sometimes when the beginning line is cited, I know the responsive line, or I know how the psalm ends. Definitely not always, but increasingly.
The challenge for me when reading the psalms is that frequently, the mood of the author does not coincide mine, and then it’s hard to read or digest. Given the number and variety of psalms this happens more than not. On those occasions, I try to listen, appreciate, and let it go. I try not to argue with the author about why he doesn’t need to rail at God, or why there isn’t anything good to rejoice about. I also try to note what the underlying sense of the psalm is. Is it joy because of someone else’s success? Fear of oppressors, fear of God, fear for someone else? It would be great to be able to look up in my internal card catalogue and find precisely the right psalm for today’s emotion. Sometimes that works. And in most every case, there is a psalm to reflect the sentiment du jour, I just need to find it.
The phrase that’s picked out for today’s reflection is from Psalm 1, and notes how we can delight in God’s law and meditate on it day and night, and to round out the prayerful reflection, there’s a commentary from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He writes, “daily, quiet attention to the Word of God which is meant for me, even if it is only for a few minutes, will become for me the focal point of everything which brings inward and outward order into my life.” Yes!
I didn’t think this was the case for me, but I do know that when I start my day with a scripture and prayer filled meditation, it sets my whole day off better. I’ve even become one of those people who has a few memorized verses, that I can pull out when I need them. Those verses come from a deep resonance in my soul, rather than from rote memorization, and they mean a lot to me.
This morning, I’m thinking about the discipline and resulting blessing of praying with daily scripture. Even when I don’t feel like doing it, and even when I don’t have any ‘aha moments’, there’s something satisfying in that practice.
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