I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my
stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and
I am saved from my enemies.
The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of
destruction assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death
confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I
cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him
reached his ears…
He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of
many waters…
He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who
hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the
Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place; he saved me, because
he loved me…
With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
with the
purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
For you save a
humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.
For it is you
who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
For by you I
can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.
Psalm 18
Reflection
– This is only bits and pieces of Psalm 18, which
is quite lengthy. I wish I had space to include the whole psalm, which is very
beautiful, picturesque and stirring.
This psalm has a personal reference for
me, as I chose as the scripture for my ordination card Ps 18: 19—‘he saved me
because he loved me.’ The accompanying image for my card was the San Damiano
cross of St. Francis. It seemed to me, ten years ago, that the most important
thing by far was to communicate the merciful saving love of God to people,
definitively given to all in Jesus Christ; the ensuing years have done nothing
but confirm and strengthen that conviction.
The verse immediately before that one is
a key psalm concept. ‘He brought me forth into a broad place.’ Sometimes this is
translated, ‘he brought me forth into freedom.’ The Hebrew language frequently
is short on abstract nouns, or they only develop in late Hebrew under Greek
influence. So the concept of freedom is conveyed by that of being in an open
space, open country, having lots of land to spread out, move around in.
This is actually a pretty theologically
and philosophically dense notion of freedom. Our modern notion of freedom is
very thin, ultimately very empty: I can do what I want to do. Yes, indeed. So
you can. If you want to jump off a bridge, you can do it. If you want to cut
off your arms, you can do it. You are free – yippee! You go, girl.
Very precise, very exact, and very, very
meaningless. I mean, hurray – we are free to destroy ourselves. How lovely. And
this is unfortunately not only what the modern world means by freedom, but how
a great deal of the modern world actually exercises its freedom. Making choices
that actually reduce our life, limit our life, destroy our life.
Biblical freedom means entering a space
where life expands outwards, where our potential is increased, where we find
ourselves in a bigger world, a space in which our life and being can expand and
grow. Freedom, biblically, is intrinsically related to truth, then. For we
cannot move and grow and expand unless we are standing on solid ground, on the
ground of reality.
But even more so, freedom in the full
biblical sense is life in Christ. The open space into which God leads us is the
heart of Christ, the place in which our life expands to such an extent that we
are truly sharers in God’s life, truly divinized by our participation in
Christ’s life in the Father. God is perpetually drawing us into a bigger place,
a larger world than we can envision or comprehend, and this is the whole
movement of grace in our lives.
He leads us into this open space, saves
us because he loves us, and so we can leap walls, conquer armies, shake off the
cords of death and Sheol, and all the other lovely prospects Psalm 18 lays out
for us. He leads us into this open place first—life in Christ—then in that
space empowers us to make choice upon choice, in freedom, that make us more and
more free, less and less encumbered, expanding ever outward and upward into the
free space of love and truth, purity and mercy.
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