Psalm Reflection - Week 6

Psalm 16 -- At home in prayer

When we turn to God in prayer, we seek ways that will comfort us and bring us peace. There is a security in words and forms that are familiar. Psalm 16 seems to be such a prayer. As we seek to find comfort in the familiar repetition of the rosary or quiet presence before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, the psalmist here seems similarly content. When we turn to God in prayer, it is often during times of turmoil. At such times, it is a comfort to be at home with what is familiar. We favor our own forms of private prayer and these bring us a sense of God's presence.

Some may find these reflections on the psalms a new form of prayer even though they are the most ancient of prayers. Their language is sometimes foreign to us, the references indeed from another world. Some are easier to grasp than others. My hope in setting these reflections before you is that the psalms may become another familiar form of prayer. The format suggested for praying each week relies on the ancient prayer form of Lectio Divina. This is prayerful and meditative reading of the word of God and pondering the meaning. It is a silent form of prayer that invites us to listen to the voice of God speaking through the sacred words and listening to how they invite us to inward growth and change and a deeper relationship with God.

When we pray our rosary, we are invited to meditate on the sacred mysteries. The repetition of the prayers forms the background to our pondering. The prayers are not the most important part of praying the rosary. Our reflecting on the mysteries of faith is the heart of that prayer. This invites us to enter into these sacred mysteries and grow in our understanding of God. This is also a form of Lectio Divina!

The words that form a psalm are words that create images and are common to human experience. Step 2 of our approach to the psalms suggested in these reflections encourage you, after a prayerful reading of the entire psalm, to re-read it, attending to the words and images that draw you. Psalm 16 is filled with words and images! The psalm is brief enough for us to point out some of these.

What is the name by which God is addressed: vs 1a… "Preserve me, God" The generic name for God is used here but in line b: "…Lord, you are my God". There is a formality in the beginning line that gives way to a sense of intimacy as God is addressed "Lord" and "My God".
What insight do we have into this divine-human relationship? God is the source of happiness, refuge, inheritance. God has favored the psalmist, setting him apart and filling his heart with love of what is good and noble. God's favor fills the night time when it seems that fears and aloneness can stifle the human spirit. Not so here. God is the source of comfort and direction. God's favor sets a course that brings life and gladness. The psalmist knows that he or she enjoys the favor of God. They have been invited to experience God and the fullness of joy and life. Such is a gift from God but embraced by the human spirit willingly. There are no compromise measures here! " You are my portion and my cup".

Commentators on this psalm suggest this may be the prayer of a Levite. Among the tribes of Israel (the sons of Jacob), the Levites were to receive no inheritance of land. They were to be sustained in their priestly ministry at the temple through the offerings and tithes of the people. An earlier tradition from Genesis paints a less favorable picture of the Levites and sees them deprived of landed inheritance because of the violence they and the tribe of Simeon perpetrated against the Shechemites when avenging the rape of Dinah (Genesis 34). These 2 diverse traditions about the tribe of Levi being landless remind us of the various layers of text traditions that come together in the narrative.

Whatever may be the case, the psalmist speaks of God being his portion and cup; of his lot being his delight and his heritage welcome. In Israel, possession of the land, of the ancestral heritage was significant. But Leviticus reminds every Israelite that: "The land is mine and you are but aliens who have become my tenants" (Lev 25). Possession of the land was equated with membership in the community, but the Levites were to be a counter sign to this. The vulnerable state of "landlessness" was to remind them and us of where our security is to be found. The priest was to rely entirely on God as his portion and cup, so too is this ideal held out to every member of the covenant community.

We began talking about comfortable prayer. I hope the psalms are beginning to be more accessible to you. It is always good to experience new ways of encountering God. As mentioned, praying the rosary is fundamentally meditation on the mysteries of the life of Jesus. For a change, try reading some portion of the Infancy Narratives (Matt 1-2 or Luke 1-2) or some part of the Passion or Resurrection accounts in the Gospels to supplement your praying the rosary. You might also find it meaningful to take the psalm we are praying during a given week and imagine what moments of Jesus' life one or other psalm might have been prayed by him. The Gospel recounts that Jesus prayed during the night. For sure he might have found comfort from this psalm at such times.

"I will bless you, Lord, you give me counsel

And even at night, direct my heart" (Ps 16:7)