A Song Of Ascents

A Reflection on the Psalm for October 20th, 2019:
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalm 121

R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

I lift up my eyes to the hills — from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. R.

The Lord will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. R.

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. R.

The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. R.

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“I was one hundred percent certain I wouldn’t fall off, and that certainty was what kept me from falling off.”
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So observed now famous rock climber Alex Honnold regarding his 2008 free-solo climb of the Moonlight Buttress, a 1200-foot near-vertical sandstone cliff in Utah’s Zion National Park. Nine years later when Honnold scaled the 3000-foot El Capitan rock face in Yosemite National Park, the feat was captured on film and celebrated in the 2019 Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo. Free soloing is climbing only with the body, no ropes, no harness. Alex Honnold is the greatest free-soloist alive.


Honnold is plain-spoken. His observations on self-discipline, preparation, patience, and focus are neither self-aggrandizing nor falsely humble. He trained for years before tackling the four-hour climb on “El Cap,” carefully managing his diet, building his physical strength, chalking his route on the rock face and choreographing it in his mind – even ascending on ropes to clean his route of debris.


Though onerous, this physical preparation paled in comparison to the mental training. Honnold said he spent years chipping away at the idea that El Cap was insurmountably huge, managing uncertainty and believing he had the ability to climb it. His goal: to make something that should be incredibly scary, feel within his comfort zone.


When your life is hanging in the balance, certainty – faith – does not come easy. You have to have been building it, nurturing it, welcoming it, and surrendering to it.


The responsorial psalm for the coming Sunday is Psalm 121, one of a series called the Songs of Ascents. The psalmist says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the Lord.”

"One doesn’t have to be halfway up a rock face before the Lord is in place as our spotter. He is at the ready, supporting us from the first step."

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One doesn’t have to be halfway up a rock face before the Lord is in place as our spotter. He is at the ready, supporting us from the first step. As the psalmist says, the Lord will ensure we progress over on firm ground: “He will not let your foot be moved.” The Lord is our “keeper.” He does not slumber but, like every loving parent, maintains a watchful eye, protecting us from harm. When we are exposed on the rock face, the Lord will be our “shade”: “the sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.” The Lord will “keep you from all evil.” The Lord “will keep your life.”


In other words, the faith we have in God — nurtured through prayer and Scripture — gives us the physical and mental strength we need to be free-soloists. It gives us a real confidence that we can tackle the mountains that once seemed insurmountably huge, manage uncertainty, and believe that, through the Lord, we have the ability to overcome. As the beloved of the Lord, we can be one hundred percent certain we will not fall, and that certainty will keep us from falling.


Donna Davis

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