Thoughts of Catholic Hermit on Praying and Living Psalm 16

This psalm was one of the first that truly spoke to me through and in the Holy Spirit when my soul was opened up for greater utilization especially in the night, nearly 29 years ago.

"Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble,




"Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows;
 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
   you hold my lot.

"I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
   in the night also my heart instructs me.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
   my body also rests secure.

"You show me the path of life.
   In your presence there is fullness of joy;
   in your right hand are pleasures for evermore." (Psalm 16:1-11)

This morning the Lord reminds me to remain steadfast in Him.  I awoke in heaviness of physical pain, and the emotions can reflect and then react to pain, such as the immense head pain that often visits during the night and greets upon wakening.


Sometimes a hymn is given.  A longtime friend of childhood and all through life, sometimes is given a hymn.  The day before yesterday the Lord gave me the well-known line:  "They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love.  Yes they'll know that we are Christians by our love."  I think He gave me this hymn that day due to thoughts regarding persecutors who justify themselves, and sincerely so, in righteousness.  If people act not in love nor speak not in love, even if they think they are doing the Lord a service, how is that Christian?

"For the Beauty of the Earth" was the hymn given the next day.  Sometimes the hymns are tunes of secular music, with the words all intoned with spiritual meaning.  The lover and loved become the lover and beloved, the Lover and Beloved, the soul and Jesus, Jesus and the soul: Jesus and me.  It could be Jesus and you, too.

When the physical pain rises, the devil takes advantage, if allowed.  He slithers into the pain-wearied mind and plays the emotions like a vulnerable harp.  He plays upon memories, such as the earthly homeland, the beautiful gardens never more to be except in heaven, the people who really cared and loved.   Memories of childhood and having health, of talents offered and accepted, of neighbors friendly and warm....

Then the ruse is up, just as it was when Elijah the prophet heard God ask, "How long will you go limping with two different opinions?"  He challenged the other, and the Lord God made Himself known as the Lord of all, and the other displayed itself as fruitless and without answer.  

The Lord God, the true God, the one and only God, reigns triumphant and forever.  Those who chose another (or several other) gods multiply their sorrows.

The holy ones are the noble.  Who is noble among us?  Who listens to and hears the Word of God and acts on it?  Are these the noble--these who Jesus says are His mother, brothers, sisters?  Surely these are the noble, for they not only love God, but they know Him.  They are gracious, merciful, kind, slow to anger, patient, and without guile.

They allow the Lord to show them the path of their lives.  He instructs them and gives counsel, day and night.  By day with many distractions, it can be through temporal means.  In the night when the soul is lifted out of consciousness, He instructs intuitively, by the heart.  


It is His right hand that gives pleasures for evermore.  His right hand signifies the dominant hand, the spiritual action.  What is the other, the left?  It represents the the tangible temporal, necessary and physical but which is the lesser in the full spectrum of eternity.

Jesus' life and death, His resurrection and ascension, demonstrate for us our portion and our cup, the path to holiness, of the noble.  May we let go our own division and let Him show us the path in life, in His presence the fullness of joy no matter where on earth, the eternal pleasures in His right hand.

Bless the Lord! God bless His Real Presence in us!