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<\/a>The Psalms describe God as the Holy One who dwells in the fullness of life and power.\u00a0 In Psalm 99, verse 8, for example, the poet declares: \u201cExtol the Lord our God and bow in worship before God\u2019s holy mountain, for the Lord our God is Holy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The Psalms also depict God as the Eternal One.\u00a0 Psalm 90, verse 2, states: \u201cBefore the mountains were created or You had formed the earth and its surface, from eternity to eternity You are God.\u201d\u00a0 God who is eternal is a refuge in times of need..\u00a0 In Psalm 91, verses 1 and 2, we read: \u201cYou who dwell in the shelter of God most High, abide in the shadow of the Almighty, say to the Lord, my refuge, my fortress in whom I trust.\u201d\u00a0 Additionally, the Psalter claims God as redeemer.\u00a0 In Psalm 31, verses 2 \u2013 5, the poet prays: \u201cInto your hands I commend my spirit, You who have redeemed me, Lord, faithful God.\u201d<\/p>\nAs a Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton chanted his way through the entire Psalter every week of the year.\u00a0 Merton prayed the Psalms so frequently that their words took up residence in his heart and resounded in his being. The Psalms were Merton\u2019s daily spiritual sustenance.\u00a0 They were bread for his pilgrimage through life.<\/p>\n
Merton wrote several books about the Psalms: Praying the Psalms<\/em> and Bread in the Wilderness.\u00a0 <\/em>In these texts, Merton contends that the Psalms are perhaps the most significant and influential religious collection of poems ever written.\u00a0 He notes that the Psalms encompass various facets of the human experience of the Divine, including: delight in God\u2019s Law and peace in God\u2019s will (Psalm 1); confidence in God (Psalms 119 \u2013 133); mystical joy (Psalm 41); sorrow for offending God (Psalm 129); and joyful praise and adoration of God (Psalm 117).<\/p>\n When praying the Psalms, one raises one\u2019s mind and heart to God and brings the substance of his or her life to the experience. Merton notes: \u00a0\u201cWe bring to the Psalms the raw material of our poor, isolated persons, with our own individual conflicts, sufferings and trials.\u201d[i]<\/a> Merton recommends that one read or recite the Psalms slowly, savoring them, meditating on their meaning, and allowing their life lessons to penetrate one\u2019s being. \u00a0Additionally, Merton reflects that \u201cThere is \u2026 no kind of religious experience, no spiritual need of a person that is not depicted and lived out in the Psalms.\u201d[ii]<\/a> Merton adds that \u201cGod will give Godself to us through the Psalter if we give ourselves to God without reserve in our recitation of the Psalms.\u201d[iii]<\/a><\/p>\n The Psalter is canticum novum,<\/em> the song of those reborn as new creation.\u00a0 Those who pray these poems glorify God.\u00a0 The Psalms build a bridge between earth and heaven, for, as Merton declares:\u00a0 \u201cTo chant the Psalms \u2026 is to join in the Liturgy of heaven.\u00a0 It is to praise God with something of the same love with which God is praised by the blessed spirits.\u201d [iv]<\/a> who are enjoying life in eternity with God who is Love.<\/p>\n Sr. Marilyn Sunderman, RSM, Ph.D.<\/strong>, is professor of theology and chair of the on-campus undergraduate theology program at Saint Joseph\u2019s College<\/a>.<\/p>\n [i]<\/a> Thomas Merton, Bread in the Wilderness <\/em>(New York: New Directions, 2014) 118.<\/p>\n [ii]<\/a> Thomas Merton, Praying the Psalms <\/em>(Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1956) 44.<\/p>\n [iii]<\/a> Merton, Bread in the Wilderness<\/em>, 64.<\/p>\n [iv]<\/a> Merton, Bread in the Wilderness<\/em>, 136.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Old Testament Book of Psalms (the Psalter) is a hymn book that was finalized between 500 \u2013 390 BCE.\u00a0 The Psalms are a collection of religious poems of Israel that were used during liturgical ceremonies originally in the Temple … Continue reading