One of the many advantages of praying the Liturgy of the Hours is that each day it brings psalms into your life.

 

The psalms may or may not express what we are feeling at that particular moment, but as we pray them, we join with the universal Church and can figure that for many in the Church the psalm expresses their current reality.

 

Psalm 42, for example, shows us faith that runs stronger and weaker as the days and hours come and go. The psalmist begins with a lovely expression of yearning for God: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.”

 

There is frustration because that longing is not satisfied, and there are adversaries who ask each day, “Where is your God?” 

 

The psalmist expresses that struggle in what becomes a conversation with pleas to God for answers and assistance: “I say to God, ‘My rock, why do you forget about me?’” and statements of faith: “I will remember you.”

 

There is also an inner struggle, with self-reminders: “Why are you downcast, my soul? Why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.”

 

It’s good for us to realize that people throughout the ages have wrestled with God and faith. The psalms express those struggles without holding back, teaching us to be honest with the Lord about our needs, our fears, our challenges and desires.

 

There are psalms for those facing duplicity in others. Psalm 14 seems to describe our own times: “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ Their deeds are loathsome and corrupt; not one does what is right.”

 

There are psalms that are great for when we mess up. Psalm 73: “But as for me, I lost my balance; my feet all but slipped, because I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

 

Some help when we are ill and feeling alone in our suffering. Psalm 13: “How long, Lord? Will you utterly forget me?”

 

And there are many that can give us words of praise and joy when our own words sound totally inadequate. Psalm 146: “Praise the Lord, my soul; I shall praise the Lord all my life. Sing praise to my God while I live.”

 

Perhaps the Bible seems a long-ago book that doesn’t really apply to us, particularly the Old Testament. But the wisdom there addresses the core of what it is to be human, and the tales of joy and betrayal, of jealousy and self-sacrifice, of villains and heroes are all stories that continue to be repeated in our world.

 

The “Nothing is new under the sun” from Ecclesiastes hints at that small book’s ability to give us perspective for reading about the politics and maneuverings of too many people today.

 

Stories from Genesis, Exodus, those about King David and how Solomon went from great wisdom to folly all teach lessons of what to do and what not to do, and also show us where our hearts should be. Just the volume of people who have come and gone in history is breathtaking, showing us both our insignificance and how treasured by God we are.

 

Isaiah gives good instruction and imparts hope for us sinners. For example, it describes a renewed world where “my chosen ones ... shall not toil in vain, nor beget children for sudden destruction; for a race blessed by the Lord are they and their offspring ... your heart shall rejoice and your bodies flourish ...”

 

As one who gets nervous about the effects of our pollution and angry about any deliberate meanness toward God’s creatures, I recall Isaiah chapter 11, which describes life when Jesus will come to His own and “Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.”

 

Then even the animals will be friends with those who used to eat them, babies and children shall be safe, and “There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.”

 

Let us remember the Bible when we need instruction, a sense of camradarie, and hope for God’s glorious plans to come.