Sr. Irene Nowell sheds some light on this question in an article from Benedictines magazine:
“Because the psalms are the Word of God, we come to them daily with the same question: What is it that God wants to say to me today through this text? We have a right to expect to hear the voice of God in the psalms — every day. Every day that word will be different — sometimes challenging, sometimes comforting, sometimes the still small sound of silence, sometimes the roar of the devouring fire. Every day, as we listen to the psalms, we listen to the voice of God.”
I confess that my mind often wanders during Morning and Evening Prayer. However, Sr. Irene’s words are a call to attention; if God is going to speak to me today through the psalms, I don’t want to miss what God has to say! If I have the right to expect to hear the voice of God in the psalms, I also have the responsibility to listen to those words of challenge, comfort, instruction, and even the sound of silence, which can be very rich.
The circumstances of some of the psalms may be hard to relate to, because many of us have been blessed in that we have never directly encountered war or been a refugee, for example. There are plenty of people in the world who face those circumstances every day, however, so perhaps in those psalms God is inviting us is to a greater level of compassion.
More often than not, though, the psalms touch on emotions that are common to all humans — awe, gratitude, mourning, jealousy, desire, fear, betrayal, temptation, and pride, to name a few. These feelings touch every aspect of our lives. How good, then, that God helps us navigate these complex emotions by guiding, comforting, and challenging us in the psalms each day.
As St. Benedict says, we just need to listen and incline the ear of our heart.
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