Listen

Teach me your way, Lord, so that I can walk in your truth. Make my heart focused only on honoring your name. I give thanks to you, my Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever, because your faithful love toward me is awesome and because you’ve rescued my life from the lowest part of hell.

Psalm 86:11-13

Think

Our psalm for today belongs to a series of lamentations. Although we associate that word with complaints or reproaches, it is actually prayer. Sometimes laments are the prayers of a single person, and at other times of entire peoples. In this cry, human suffering is articulated in dialogue with God. It is very similar to when we sit down with a trusted person to empty the heavy weight that we so often carry within us.

Lamenting with God is an exercise in friendship and closeness. And if you think about it, only those who have faith speak with such sincerity. To pray is to open oneself, like the psalmist, so that God may touch our souls. These are the words of someone who has learned to be transparent, because God is everywhere, including in our ups and downs. “Your love toward me is awesome,” cries the psalmist. And though he has seen his death close at hand, God has delivered him and shown him that he can turn his lament into praise.

Richard Rojas Banuchi

Question to Ponder:

What laments about my life and the world around me can I present in prayer?

Pray

God, today I want to speak to you with true sincerity. I do not want to hide any burden. Accept my laments, hear my cries, and transform them by the power of your Spirit into joy and deep peace. Amen.

Go

Recognizing that God has been present helps us live grateful lives.