IV.
In Thomas Merton’s Bread in the Wilderness, I came across this –
“ … the Psalms are the nourishment of [the] interior life and of … personal prayer, so that at last [we] come to live them and experience them as if they were [our] own songs, [our] own prayers.”
Spend time today with these two Psalms, taking special note of where they are your own songs, your own prayers.
V.
Psalm 149:1-5 (NRSV)
Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.Let Israel be glad in its Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with victory.Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.
Psalm 150 (NRSV)
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his surpassing greatness!Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!Praise him with clanging cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
VI.
As these Psalms become your own songs and prayers, where do you praise God, for what do you praise God, with what instruments (musical or otherwise) do you praise God?
For those days in which praise does not seem to naturally arise, what do you do? Do you fake it? Do you avoid God? Do you offer your honesty to God in the place of the absent praises? What can you do?
charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}