Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness. Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.” Psalm 143:1-2
The Catholic Church considers Psalm 143 as one of the Seven Penitential Psalms. It is written in the form of a lament and the writer starts with acknowledging God as the source of all redemption and salvation.
When I read this psalm, the writing reminds me of a person coming before the judge defending his case and why he needs the judge’s grace and mercy. The writer, however, knows that God is more than a judge; God is his everything in this world and he pleas for God to reveal himself to him.
Read the words of the psalm and you can feel a deep sense of alienation, and abandonment. Now, the writer is asking for a reinstatement of the kind of relationship in the days of old when God was readily available to him and was visible in his life. Apparently, as of the writing of this psalm, God seems to have withdrawn from the writer.
There have been times when I have felt the abandonment of God, the absence of any spiritual presence and the utter loneliness of being separated from God. I felt it most when I was in my third orphanage when I was not welcomed by anyone or thing. I wondered how a faithful believer could be so banished to such a place such as this. However, as it turned out, God was never that far but was busy preparing for my future. I stayed in that last orphanage only four months and was brought to a wonderful and loving family in Minneapolis.
It is fitting that this psalm should be meditated upon during this penitential season of Lent as we prepare to walk with Jesus on his final journey to the cross. I think of Jesus leaning against the rock in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking God with every morsel of his being to allow him to live and not undergo the death he was about to experience. One myth has Jesus so concerned and desperate about his circumstance in that Garden that he bled blood.
As we experience utter desolation and distance from God from time to time, remember God knows our despair and our need for him. He himself experienced it through the death and resurrection of His Son. Based on my experience in Vietnam, I am convinced that when God seemed to be farthest from us, it is then that He is preparing for our future.
If you ever find yourself in the position of the writer, don’t lose faith. Continue to expect great things from God and yourself because as it says in the first two verses of the psalm, only God is the source of all redemption, life and salvation.
Prayer: Dear Lord, walk with us and never be far from us. Help us to know your will and when we seem to be far from you, we will rest in the security that you are still there preparing us for our future. Amen.
