Footfalls

A Reflection on the Psalm for January 24th, 2021:
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Psalm 25

R. Lord, make me know your ways.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
Teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
For you are the God of my salvation. 
*

R. Lord, make me know your ways.

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,
For they have been from of old.
*
According to your steadfast love remember me,
For the sake of your goodness, O Lord! 

R. Lord, make me know your ways.

Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
​And teaches the humble his way. 
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R. Lord, make me know your ways.

Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

Sometimes something becomes a walking prayer. I hear a phrase of scripture in my mouth, and it seems to have a beat meant to be paced out. Prayer in motion. Prayer on the move.


Lord
Make me
Know
Your ways.
Lord
Make me
Know
Your ways.


Left. Right. Left. Right.
Step and repeat.  
Each footfall hammering home in my thick head what it is I’m asking Him for.


Lord
Make me
Know
Your ways.


The first sin, that I carry in my bones, was to take knowledge from His tree rather than to wait for Him to place it in my hand. It is a kind of death each time I force my will, rather than ask for His.  


Lord
Make me
Know
Your ways.


Waiting is the missing piece. This call and response presentation of Psalm 25:4-9 is actually missing two lines of David’s song. In the first stanza, following on the heels of "For you are the God of my salvation" is:


* "For you I wait all day long."


Lord
Make me
Know
Your ways.


I can pray this as I move — left, right, left, right — but I’m not getting anywhere until I learn to wait for His voice, His hand, His heart. In the second stanza what is missing is:




* "Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions."




It’s place is not at the end, but in the middle of the second stanza. This plea for Him to remove the remembrance, the results, of my sin is sandwiched in assertions of His mercy and goodness. It is supported from below and sheltered from above by the fact of His love. Even though I have taken from the tree of knowledge, He has made a way for me to take from the tree of life, by placing Himself on a different tree. Such love I cannot imagine, only be shown.


Lord
Make me
Know
Your ways.


The third stanza isn’t missing a thing. He is good. He will guide. He gave us each other. It’s not the sinner He is calling on this path, but the sinners. We aren’t meant to walk alone with Him, but linked with each other. This is why the Psalm in the liturgy is responsorial — the call and answer of a community. It is the walking prayer of many, the combined weight of all our footfalls shaking the very ground.


Lord
Make me
Know
Your ways.




Noreen Smith
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