Reflections
“The Lord redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.”
Our psalmist sings the praises
of a divine and loving God, who
surrounds us with compassion,
pardons our sins, heals our ills.
He nurses no lasting anger;
He has not dealt with us as our
sins deserve. Our duty is to
remain faithful to the Lord, and
to treat His anointed ones with
love and compassion, as He
would do.
This Sunday's Gospel teaches
a powerful and difficult lesson –
we are to be merciful to our
enemies by imitating the Father.
(Matthew 5: 43-48)
And the Psalm tells us how to do this,
by being “Merciful and gracious, slow
to anger and abounding in kindness.”
Who can love their enemies, and do
good to them? It will be difficult if we
allow our earthly nature to rule us.
Just as “God has not dealt with us
as our sins merit,” so must we imitate
God and have compassion on those
we would typically want to condemn.
We cannot imitate God without a share
in Christ’s divinity, and in turn being
empowered by the Holy Spirit within us.
Only then will we have the kind of
compassion the psalmist speaks about,
“As a father has compassion on his
children, so the Lord has compassion
on the faithful.”
If we love the Lord, it will show in our hearts,
and the old things will then pass away.
The Psalm says it well: “As far as the east
is from the west, so far has He put our
transgressions behind us.”
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Our Psalm speaks of a loving and compassionate God, who does not deal
with us according to our sins. Are you able to treat those who have harmed you
in the same way? Explain.
2. The verses of the Psalm remind us of the power of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He put our transgressions behind us." Relate how the Sacrament works for you to put
your sins behind you.
This psalm of David is a Hymn of Praise to God. Unlike many of the psalms of David, this one does not focus on personal difficulties, harassment by enemies, personal guilt, or the need for forgiveness. Rather, David, teaches us here to sing a hymn of admiring gratitude to God.
ReplyDeleteAs described in this Psalm, our love for the Lord comes from the very depths of our soul. Look at all the wondrous things He does for us! He forgives our sins, redeems us from eternal destruction, and crowns us with loving and tender mercies. As a matter of fact, He not only forgives our sins, but he removes them as far as the east is from the west. In all of this He remembers our weaknesses like a father for his children.
Therefore we can remind ourselves to bless God for all the ways he has blessed us. This involves, first and foremost, his actions on our behalf to make us members of his covenant people. It also includes the children he has given to us to raise up to become those who will be his covenant people in the future long after we have left this life to enter his presence.