Reflections
Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-16, 17-18 (Read)
“The hand of the Lord feeds us;
He answers all our needs.”
We are like sheep, dependent on our
Good Shepherd to give us nourishment.
As the prophet Isaiah says,if we heed the
Lord, we shall eat well, and we shall delight
in rich fare. (1st reading, Isaiah 55:1-3)
Just as Jesus fed five thousand men from a few
loaves and two fish, so Jesus feeds a multitude
of us even today. We too are among the hopeful
ones who look to the Lord for our food in due season.
“The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them
their food in due season.”
The Lord satisfies the desire of every living thing,
as our psalmist says. He opens wide His hand for us.
His presence is shown in the help, nourishment,
and salvation that He shows to us. We are dependent
on our Lord to feed us. He nourishes us physically,
spiritually, and emotionally.
We are His faithful ones, and we praise God and give
Him thanks because of His divine attributes of
compassion and love. Our psalmist dwells on the
everlasting nature of God, on His love and presence
throughout all time, and we are called to praise the
Lord forever and ever.
Our psalmist reminds us, “The Lord is good to all and
compassionate toward all His works.” We know this
inherently because we live our lives along an unending
stream of divine love.
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Our psalmist says the Lord gives us our food in due season.
Tell of how you have been fed by the Lord and nourished by Him.
2. The Psalm's verses affirm that the Lord is full of
compassion
and love for every living thing. Speak of how God's love has
changed your life and made you a better person.
Reflections
Psalm 119: 57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130 (Read)
"Wonderful are your decrees; therefore I observe them."
Our psalmist is in prayer, expressing his love
for the Lord's commands, and promising to keep
His words.
We may not have the wisdom of Solomon,
but we have enough discernment to recognize
how powerful the Lord's decrees can be in our
spiritual lives. Just as the law of the Lord
is precious to our psalmist, so too is the law
of the Lord central to our lives and to our faith.
Our psalmist says that the Lord's decrees are
wonderful, and therefore he observes them.
We may not always think of the law as wonderful,
(some people may consider it restrictive), but
if we learn to do His will, we find that we are
liberated, set free from the sin that drags us down.
We choose life instead of death.
Doing God's will (keeping his commandments)
isn't easy, but having received His grace, and having
been granted discernment to know right from wrong,
good from evil, we can follow Him with conviction.
Our 'yes' will mean 'yes' to the Lord; and our 'no'
will mean 'no' to the devil and his minions.
Having decided to do His will, we take delight in
keeping His statutes; they are like honey to us.
And the blessings we receive are part of what
God has prepared for those who love him.
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Our psalmist says he observes the Lord's commandments
because they are wonderful and they shed light. Explain why
you are committed to follow the Lord's decrees.
2. The Psalm assures us that we go forward if we follow God's
precepts, and in so doing we avoid every false way. Speak of
how God's commandments protect you on your journey of faith
and draw you closer to God.
Reflections
Psalm 86: 5-6, 9-10, 15-16 (Read)
“Turn toward me, and have pity on me,
give your strength to your servant.”
We pray, as does our psalmist David,
for the Lord to attend to the 'sound of
our pleading.' We take refuge in the same
heavenly Father that Christ did. Even
when we are far away, the Lord has pity
on us. Even though we forget Him, He
does not forget us. He searches our hearts;
He gathers us into His mansion
at the end of the age.
He empowers us to fight a good fight.
God saves us from our enemies, and also
from ourselves. All we have to do is
open our hearts to Him and do His will
by striving to be saved. For God gives
His children good ground for hope, and
He permits repentance for their sins.
(Wisdom 12:19, 1st reading)
Our Psalmist never stops asking,
and He is rightly sure,
that God could never stop giving.
God could scarcely resist our prayers.
Even though we do not know how to pray
as we ought, as St Paul says, the Holy Spirit
Himself intercedes with inexpressible
groanings. (2nd reading, Romans 8:26)
The Lord is present to us;
He listens; He pardons; He saves.
God's goodness overwhelms us.
Even nonbelievers will come to worship
God and glorify His name.
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Our psalmist is overwhelmed with the goodness of our
merciful Lord. Give an example of how God has attended
to the sound of your pleading and done a wondrous deed
in your life.
2. The Psalm is a prayer that God will strengthen and
empower His servant. Speak of how the Lord has empowered
you to do His will.
Reflections
Psalm 65: 10, 11, 12-13, 14 (Read)
“The Lord has visited the land and watered it;
greatly has He enriched it.”
Water is so critical for a place like the Holy Land,
as it is here in the arid climate of Southern
California. Without water we could not produce
any crops. We are blessed that “God's
watercourses are filled,” and He provides us with
an abundant harvest.
We also depend upon the Lord to supply us with
what Jesus calls the living water that satisfies our
spiritual thirst. Jesus is the Word that drenches us,
adorns our year with plenty.
How else could we bear fruit?
With His showers He softens the land, blessing its
young sprouts (that is us). We are like untilled meadows
without His word and His grace. How else could
we expect our pastures to be blanketed with grain?
The Lord prepares the earth; our paths overflow
with fruitful rain. The hills are robed in joy.
God’s Word is showered down upon us, and
does not return to Him void;
we do His will; we are His witnesses;
we keep the faith.
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Our psalmist speaks about the Lord having visited
the land and watered it. Tell of how the Lord has drenched
you with His living water that yields a fruitful
harvest.
2. The Psalm assures us that the Lord breaks up the clods
of the land and softens it with showers. Give an example
of how God's Word has softened you up spiritually and led
you to do His will.
Reflections
Psalm 145: 1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14 (Read)
“The Lord lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.”
We may question why God allows us to suffer,
why he allows bad things to happen to good people.
We may ask, as the early believers probably did,
“Why is it necessary to undergo such hardships
to enter the kingdom of God?”
Scripture tells us that afflictions are to be expected
in our walk with the Lord. We may not understand
what God is up to, but we can be sure that our faith
will be strengthened if we stand fast in the face of
suffering. We will become better witnesses for Christ
if we are humbled; we become better servants
if we bear up with our difficulties and trust in the Lord,
as our psalmist tells us.
And as the Gospel says, we are raised up by getting
'yoked to Jesus.' That is how our burdens are made light,
by helping Jesus to carry His cross, as Simon did that day
on the road to Calvary. Despite what we may think,
"His yoke is easy and His burden light."
Remember that endurance is a Godly quality and will
help us to get yoked to Jesus. Having done that, we,
like our psalmist David, join with the faithful and
speak of the glory of God's reign and bless his name.
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Our psalmist assures us that the Lord will lift us up
when we are falling. Speak of a time when you have
undergone hardship and how your faith has been strengthened.
2. The Psalm says that the Lord is "good to all and
compassionate toward all his works." Tell how this verse
inspires you to be more compassionate toward those in
your life who may not always be lovable in your sight.
