Psalm 61:1-2

Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
from the end of the earth I call to thee,
when my heart is faint.
Lead thou me to the rock that is higher than I.
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These days, when somebody is troubled spiritually, the knee-jerk counsel offered by "spiritual" types in movies, books and TV is that "if you need something to believe in, believe in yourself." G. K. Chesterton writes of this "Doctrine of the Inner Light": "Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment the worst is what these people call the Inner Light. Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within... That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners." Today's verse recognizes just that reality as the psalmist very sensibly asks to be led, not to himself, but to the rock that is higher than he. Drowning people know that is the safest place to be. Today, seek the Rock that is higher than you.

(courtesy of Catholic Exchange)

Psalm 51:1  Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love;
according to thy abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
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One of the many ironies of modernity is that, in pretending there's no such thing as sin, we succeeded in getting rid, not of shame, but of the possibility of repentance and freedom. In the Christian worldview, sin can always be repented of and forgiveness received. But in the current culture, we are stuck with sin that cannot be washed away and can only be excused or shuffled off on somebody else. And so talk shows are awash with babble from rich kids who shoot their parents and then whine that they were "victims". A rock star in Seattle kills herself on heroin and a local paper asks "Did Seattle Kill Her?" (thereby laying shame on a million strangers who have no specific sin they can repent of and no way they can be forgiven it). A book appears explaining that rape is just one of nature's little strategies for propagating the strongest members of the race. In short, Nothing is Our Fault in modernity. It's all the fault of parents, society or chromosomes. But that doesn't mean we don't go on bearing the shame of our sins (as our energetic search for excuses bears witness). It just means that in denying our willed choice to do evil, we have denied the possibility of repentance, forgiveness and liberation from sin. Today, embrace Christ's call to repentance by admitting sin and repenting of it. God calls us to freedom and means to give it to us!

(courtesy of Catholic Exchange)