Psalm 139, Our Innermost Thoughts
Psalm 139, our innermost thoughts, do they condemn us or sanctify us? Are they in union with the will of God, or are we a contradiction? Have we desired the Heart of Jesus, the desire of the Everlasting Hills?
What does it mean to desire the Everlasting Hills? By everlasting, we grasp the wholeness of salvific history, the very purpose of the incarnation, birth, life, ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We also contemplate our eternal lives. What was His life given for? Who was He sacrificed for? Why did He shed His Precious Blood? What is the consequence of our sin? We apply this teaching and we model His way, in imitation of Christ, to the very way we live our own lives. In everything He descended. In everything He was made hidden, and humbled. In all things He gave of Himself. He emptied Himself. His entire existence on earth was to atone for and to offer salvation for the sinner. It is a gift freely given, but many reject it. Many in the Gospel rejected Him. They misunderstood Him, many walked away from Him, and then there were those who crucified Him through their own selfish desire for power and control. Those, He told Pilate, were more guilty than he because their sin was greater.
By hills we recognize the heights one must reach to attain union with the Divine. To desire the Everlasting Hills, one must desire, above all, that which Christ desires, to glorify the Father through perpetual sacrifice for the sins of man. We must enter into a covenant with God whereby we seek what He seeks, we act according to His will. This means we act in perfect obedience to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in every moment of our lives. Our actions each day must put God above all our passions, all our own selfish inclinations. We must acquiesce and give control of our life to the Author of Life. This is what Christ did. He died so that we might all live in union with Him, in the unity of Trinity, as a child of God. Our very existence should be to pray and sacrifice for the sinners in the world who have offended God so much. We ought to start with our own offenses. We ought to do much to seek forgiveness for the things we have done to offend God, who is all good and deserving of all our love. We relinquish control and we make our own lives an offering to God just as Jesus Christ makes His an oblation on the altar. We lay down our lives for the Kingdom of God.
Making Our Day an Offering to God
How do we do this? We make our day an offering to God. We begin by asking to do only His divine will that day. We seek the intercession of the Mother of God, and the help of our guardian angel. When the Holy Spirit warns us of evil, we avoid it. When the Spirit demands we do something for the sake of the Kingdom, without reserve or hesitation we act with faith, hope and charity. Every action is an act of prayer when we live for Christ as tabernacles of the Holy Trinity. We are repulsed by the sin that repulses God. We desire the salvation of souls as Christ thirsts for souls. We find ourselves entering into prayer throughout the day, praising, thanking, atoning, petitioning only for the divine will and not our own desires.
We contemplate the omnipotence of God in today’s reading. We are made aware that in all that we think, feel, and do, He is present. Nothing we do escapes Him. No sin is ever committed in secret. No act of malice, no desire that offends Him, no work of iniquity is ever committed without His knowledge.
Ask yourself, is your desire holy? Is what you are seeking – your desire of the ‘Everlasting Hills’ – is it in union with the will of God for your life? Is it pure? Is it returning His love for your love, however imperfect? Or are you seeking something that He forbids for the salvation of your own soul? If this is true, then why do you seek it? Do you not realize the depravity in such thinking? You will never have the peace that passes all understanding unless you surrender your life completely and die to yourself. The only way to abundant life is to pick up your cross and follow Him. You must imitate Christ in all things, including His surrender in the desert and His obedience to Mary.
We must seek His face and desire union with His Sacred Heart if we are to merit eternal life. If you are seeking your own selfish desires, your vain glories, and if you have evil attachments that cause you a habit of sin, God will permit this by His very nature. He desires for you to stop committing the sin and to seek His holy will. Conform yourself to His will right now in faith. If you do not seek holiness then you will forever be enslaved by your habitual sin. If you seek a deliverance then the remedy is available. All you have to do is surrender to God, confess this sin, and renew yourself by following the Gospel teaching of Jesus Christ with zeal. You must love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. You will know you have done this when you are able to love your neighbor even when he persecutes you.
Search Your Heart Today
This lent, this day, meditate on today’s Psalm and search your heart. Remember that the miracle of the wedding feast at Cana required the participation of the servants. Jesus did not just turn the water into wine. He required the servants to do the difficult work of filling those six jars to the brim with water. This was no easy task. These jars held about 30 gallons each. Imagine the effort it took for them to do this.
God permits the evil we do, but He does not condone it. We have free will to continue in our sin. Just as the servants had free will to refuse to fill the jars with water. If they had decided not to comply, there would have been no miracle.
Are you seeking self interest in your walk with Jesus? Or are you desiring surrender to His will no matter what you have to give up in order to attain it? Are you testing God as the devil in the desert? Have you given Him an ultimatum in order to earn your love for Him? Have you limited grace by your unwillingness to submit to His divine will for you?
Call upon the Holy Spirit in prayer and then begin today’s Divine Reading.
Psalm 139: Lord You Know My Innermost Thoughts
LORD, you have probed me, you know me: you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. You sift through my travels and my rest; with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all. Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, far too lofty for me to reach. Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, there you are. If I take the wings of dawn and dwell beyond the sea, Even there your hand guides me, your right hand holds me fast. If I say, “Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light”— Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one.
You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know. My bones are not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be. How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sands; when I complete them, still you are with me.
When you would destroy the wicked, O God, the bloodthirsty depart from me! Your foes who conspire a plot against you are exalted in vain. Do I not hate, LORD, those who hate you? Those who rise against you, do I not loathe? With fierce hatred I hate them, enemies I count as my own. Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my thoughts. See if there is a wicked path in me; lead me along an ancient path.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them [as their God]. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.” The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then he said, “Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.” He said to me, “They are accomplished. I [am] the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water. The victor will inherit these gifts, and I shall be his God, and he will be my son. But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and deceivers of every sort, their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Prayer for Requesting the Divine Will of God
Lord Jesus Christ, my Eternal Good, my Fullness, my Cup that Overflows, my Gift of Salvation, my Spotless Lamb, my Perfect Victim –
I thank You and praise You for Your Eternal Sacrifice on the Altar.
I glorify You and I unite myself with You this day in perfect union with the Holy Trinity to fulfill all holy tasks given to me.
Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and guide my thoughts, my words, my actions this day so that I may be in perfect union with Your divine will for my life.
I ask all this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and by the intercession of the Virgin Mary and all the saints, Amen.
