The Call of Courage

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, January 5th, 2024:
The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

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Psalm 72

R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more. May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.

R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

For he delivers the needy one who calls, the poor and the one who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.

​R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

The heart of God is a heart of courage.

​On this, the feast of Epiphany, it is this heart of courage that He has called me to reflect on. To initiate this tradition of our faith, the Magi set out infused with courageous hearts, with the desire and determination to find answers to their questions; to answer what they may not yet have perceived as His call; to unravel the mysteries that had been laid out before them from generations past. They courageously embarked on their quest, both dangerous and uncertain, in the name of truth—undaunted by distance (an approximate 1000 mile trek), political climate (they confronted the erratic king Herod alerting him to their destination and purpose), or the upheaval their prophetic call would eventually stir (the murder of the innocents).

I think of the ways fear has interrupted God’s call on my life. In the coldness of fear, I slow down, stiffen. My movement toward Him is frozen for a time. But in the warmth of Love I soften, moving swiftly when I hear. The conviction in this psalm’s refrain, spoken as a declaration, a firm truth, is the perfect warm-up for my spiritual muscles to press me forward in answering His call with the assurance that He will respond in justice. 

“Lord, EVERY nation on Earth will adore You.” (emphasis mine)

Chasing down the path of true Love requires a deep confidence in God; the unreasonable courage and vulnerable trust that is the required disposition to allow my heart to be opened to whatever might happen next. It is wholly possible that in taking that step and assuming that disposition, hurt and disappointment will result. It’s also possible that at the same time I will learn something about what I am made of. That in my hurt and disappointment, in the trials and uncertainty, He will show me that deep within my very self is His spirit. And where His spirit is, I will also encounter every possible fulfillment.

The Abiding Together podcast recently shared a prayer that read, “Lord, baptize my imagination.” I pray this prayer today, that the Lord might free my mind from fear and open it to the unknowable possibilities of God’s perfect plan for my life; that He might help me to believe the things He has already done—the impossible things—so that I might envision the boundless possibilities for the specific path He has given me in this life. May His heart of courage press me on through the wall of fear into the beauty of Truth.

​Every nation on earth WILL adore you, Lord. And may You count me as one among them. 




Lori MacDonald

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