Love and Salvation

Once we experience that God is “my God” that the Father is “my Father,” when we have entered into a personal relationship with Him, and we know, that night and day the Lord is by our door, that He keeps us company like a loving mother and watches over our sleep. He inspires us from within and we feel His presence as strength, joy and liberty, then the words of the psalmist do not sound like an exaggeration, but rather they fall short of the reality. God is “to be lived” and it is only then that He becomes an invincible fortress for us in our struggle for true freedom.

And this is how, full of tenderness, the psalmist continues to expand: “On my bed, when I think of you, I meditate on you in the watches of the night.” Such a person, who lives like that, will never be overcome by fear. The phantoms will not be able to assail him/her when going deep into the night; while working or walking and relating with others, certainty and joy will go with him/her like two guardian angels, because “You, my Lord, are with me.”

To signify this inner state of liberation, one of the most splendid verses comes out of the psalmist's mouth: “In the shadow of your wings, I sing with joy”. Jubilation: the highest word of all the synonyms of joy. Singing: when spontaneous, is always a way of escape: when someone is overflowing with joy, and needs to vent, bursting forth in song is a way to do so. Wing: in the Bible, frequently is the symbol of the protective power of God. Shadow, on a hot summer’s evening, the most yearned for gift.

Now, if we put the four words together, we find that the psalmist achieves a “feat” of describing the indescribable in a single short verse; we meet a human being with an enviable outlook: a person preceded by security, followed by peace, guarded by liberty and breathing joy from every pore. What can stop a person like this, from becoming love and salvation for all?

Extracted from the book "Psalms for life" by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga. Psalm 63(62)