Psalm 119: A Lenten Call to Serve God Joyfully

Yesterday, on my lunch break, I stopped in at our local Pauline Book Store to browse... then visited their small chapel to spend some time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Being more than a little tired and stressed from work, I wasn’t able to form a coherent prayer, but rather, little pious thoughts popped-up here and there in my brain, in between absent minded wandering. I apologized to Jesus for my lack of focus and asked him if it would be okay for me to just sit there in stillness and keep him company for the few moments that I still had to spare.
 

After minutes of quiet calm I stood up to leave, but before I did, I headed over to the tabernacle to give it a kiss and walked by a podium where a Bible sat open. I paused and remembered mentally asking the Holy Spirit to “speak” to me through God’s Word, after which my eyes were immediately drawn to a specific Scripture Passage.

 

At the same time it seemed to me that a voice within my heart spoke and urged, “Pray this…”, so I thoughtfully read and reflected through the words with growing wonder. It seemed as though everything I had wanted to say and ask of Jesus during our brief visit together, but couldn’t express via thoughts or words, were summarized in the few short lines I had just read.

 

I took a picture of the Bible's page so I could continue to pray the words throughout the day then proceeded to kiss the tabernacle's door before leaving the chapel to return to my office. It was only after I got back to my desk that I learned the Scriptures were from Psalm 119:17-24.

 

I prayed the Psalm several times over for the rest of the day and felt God’s peace despite my fatigue. The more I prayed it, the more I came to accept it as an invitation from God to humbly and trustfully serve him... and to strive even more to live a faith-filled life so as to come to a time when I would find complete Joy and Freedom in that servitude.  I decided to make it my personal Lenten meditation for 2013.