Coming to God With All Our Feelings
Let us be in the Spirit of Prayer: Loving One we trust that we can come to you with our hearts wide open; with all of our joys; with all of our sorrows; with whatever we are feeling. For you are our Creator. Your love is steadfast and true. You know us completely and fully. Help us to always be our authentic selves with you. Remind us againthat there is nothing we can go through that you have not already experienced. For through Jesus you experienced the fullness of human life. Amen.
As we traverse together on these Wednesday evenings we will be exploring the Psalms—not just the upbeat parts, not just the familiar sections We’ll read a Psalm each week in its entirety using a variety of translations to get different feels. Together we’ll hear heartfelt thanksgiving and praise along with deep emotions of angst and anger, confusion and chaos. In community, we’ll listen to the innermost yearnings of the Psalmistswho try to make sense of life and of the world, whotry discern how God moves within and around humanity. We’ll listen, and I hope, realize that the Psalms give us permission to come to God with all of our feelings and emotions, to be our true, authentic selves. For God is always searchingour hearts. God is with us when we bubble over with laughter, when we release those deep cries of lament, when we question or doubt, when we trust and believe, when we are angry and when we are happy. God has always been with us. God will always be with us. God promises never to leave us.
Psalms are prayers with poetic and moving words and language. Psalms have been sung and recited out loud throughout the ages—with monastic communities, through the Divine Office. They offer ancient words which are sometimes comforting, which are sometimes disturbing. They offer a glimpse into the world of our ancestors.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the Psalms priceless treasures which should be prayed seriously and regularly.
St. Jerome spoke of hearing the Psalms being sung in fields and gardens.
Thomas Merton offers that Psalms are songs of the church, the very expression of her deepest inner life. Her words and thoughts spring forth…from the innermost heart of the church, and they are songs which better express her soul, her desires, her longings, her sorrows, and her joys.
The Psalms are a reminder that though many things in life have changedothers remain the same—as we still search for answers.Like the Psalmists, I believe we are continually trying to make sense of the world around us (at least I know I am). I believe we long to know God’s ways more fully; we yearn to follow God’s ways more closely; so we seek guidance, we ask questions, we reflect upon and perhaps consider anew the wondrous attributes of our God.
In the reading of Psalm 25, we hear a range of pleas and proclamations. We hear the trust the Psalmist placesin God, along with a call forprotection for self and all who put their trust and hope in God. We hear the attributes the Psalmist subscribes to God: the Lord is good and does the right thing, teaches sinners (that would be us) the way they should go. We hear of heart’s troubles, of the desire to be set free from distress. We hear the Psalmist speak to God for individual and communal help—to know God’s waysand then for help to follow them. The Psalmist uses this space to release, to question, to affirm, to grow.
As wetraversing together through this season of Lent, as we reflect upon the words of the Psalms, we are reminded that we live in a world fraught with struggles and concerns, with “enemies” if you will. And these “enemies” are found both outside and within us. In his “Feasting On the Word” commentary, Geoffrey Hoare offers, “Our enemies can be found outside us and within us, but for most of us, most of the time the real danger lies within. Even someone we perceive as an enemy…can tempt us to forget who we are as beloved creatures of God. When we forget who we are, we becomes subjects of all kinds of thoughts and behaviors that make us less than we were created to be: vengeful, mean, scared…inclined toward self-destructive behaviors.” When we find ourselves living as less than God created us to be, we are invited to return to God, to share what we are feeling, to share our confessions, to share our concernsall the while trusting that God is listening, that God is working within us—to transform our hearts, to open our minds, to forgive us, to guide us onto new paths. Will we slip up again? Sure. Will we find ourselves making choices we regret? Probably. But God is there—to pick us up, to point us toward a new way, to love us back to wholeness
Like the Psalmist, may we feel free to come before God with all our imperfections, with all our emotions, with all our questions.May we come before God with all our feelings this day and every day.
Peter Hanson offers this prayer on a devotion I read daily: Walk with God, trusting in God’s promises. Be convinced that God will do what God has promised to do. Live in that trust, in that conviction, in that faith. Walk with God and be trustworthy.
As we traverse the Psalms together, may we know that we are walking with our ancestorsand we are walking with God through these ancient words.
May it be so.