Psalm Consolation

Read Psalm 27.

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"

I was surprised this year when I sat down to read the scriptures appointed for Lent this season. Why surprised? Like we all do, I think of these forty days as a time of penitence, of difficult undertakings and of setting ones face to Jerusalem. And yet...the actual scriptures work so hard to console us. Instead of being hit over the head with our shortcomings, the Word calls to us with consolation and protection (Psalm 91 in Week One). It assures us that we might know "the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13). Lent is a time of renewal: renewed trust in the promises of God (Psalm 63 in Week Three). In the final days before Passion Sunday, we hear of the a harvest of joy (Psalm 126 in Week Five). How hard God seeks to tend to our hearts in this season of honest accounting and repentence. How hard God works to feed us in our vulnerability and hunger in the spiritual desert of temptation.

Reflection

• Lent is a time for disciplined focus on God. How does God stregthen and console you?
• Which words of this week's psalm do you seem to need the most?

Prayer

God of light and love and consolation, you turn us to you. Help us to turn in love and forgiveness to one another. Amen