Beloved Members of St. Martin’s,
This Sunday we will feature readings honoring St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day was Friday. St. Francis is associated with his love of the poor, and his love for all of creation—the same creation that God’s Wisdom is rooted in.
One of the readings will be one of my favorites—Psalm 121. This is a pilgrimage psalm, and a favorite of travelers throughout the ages. When we are traveling, we often do not know where to find help. We don’t know how to read the signs. The same thing can happen when we are going through a season of change. It can be disorienting. Where can we look for help when so much that has been familiar is no longer right before us? I wonder if this question speaks to many of us, with so much challenge and change going on in the world around us.
Psalm 121 points out the signs of God’s never-ceasing love and protection, which are everywhere just like those green cross signs— if we just know how to recognize them for what they are. This is a psalm celebrating the protection received from God, a psalm that demonstrates the trust that those who abide in the promises of God have that their faith in God is absolute.
The first two verses are set in the first person (I, my), but the rest of the psalm is in second person (you). Perhaps it is a conversation between the traveler and God, united in prayer.
Where can we turn for help? To the Lord our God, who shields us throughout our life (vv. 3 and 6), guards us unceasingly (vv. 4-5) and protects us from the slightest harm (7-8). The psalmist, perhaps a pilgrim on a journey, or possibly metaphorically upon the journey of life, turns his eye to “the hills,” literally “mountains,”-- perhaps the hills of Zion.
Yet it is not the hills or mountains themselves that reassures the psalmist—it is the God who made the hills and mountains, streams and fields, the heavens and the earth and all that is in creation. When we are traveling, we need to know where to go to get help. God acting as a shade during the day was certainly a vivid image in the desert places of ancient Israel. One who knows that God is her constant companion, her protector and shade, has been assured that there is no reason to fear.
It is often in times when we feel most lost or alone that we realize that we have allowed ourselves to turn down a blind alley—God has been and continues to be with us all along. When we feel anxious of afraid, we need to have faith that God is with us. God keeps faith with those whose faith falters; God’s protection and love never sleeps.
May we all always remember that we are never alone, and that God’s love overshadows us always.
In Christ,
Mother Leslie+