We do not know how often St. Francis prayed Psalm
103. It is said that his papal namesake prays it daily. In his book, CHRIST
IN THE PSALMS, Orthodox pastor Father Patrick H. Reardon recommends two
especially graced ways to pray Psalm 103: as part of our thanksgiving after
sacramental Confession and while praying before an image of the Crucified.
The four
dimensions of the Cross — its height, depth, breadth and length — are the
dimensions of God's mercy. God's mercy is not a hazy benevolence.
It has a definite history which climaxes in specific acts of salvation.
It is in recognizing those
specific acts
in our personal history that we learn what St. Francis knew so well: we have
a Father in heaven, and He is gracious and merciful and loving.
St. Francis of Assisi, that accomplished student of the psalms, mastered
these three lessons well. From his conversion until his final illness, the
Little Poor Man continually experienced the gracious, merciful God at work
in his life. When Francis renounced his inheritance and returned to his
father even the clothes he wore, the future saint discovered he could
unabashedly declare:
Now I can truly say, 'Our Father who art in heaven!'
His knowledge of the Fatherhood of God deepened down the years, as through
long nights in prayer he repeated:
Who are You, my dearest Lord, and what am I?
This Father is merciful because He is almighty:
He knows of what we are made, He remembers that we are dust.
Such knowledge of who God is leads to an investigation into what we are.
Psalm 103 describes that also. The human person is weak, small, transitory.
This is precisely what makes him the object of God's special care. As
one author remarked,
Man is so tiny that God cannot help but love him.
What a wondrous, heart-shaking, life-changing
revelation — God, the Infinite, the Almighty, the All-Holy, is first and
foremost, a
Father!
Revealing the true Face of the Father is
the heart of Jesus' mission on earth. Yet, even before the Incarnation, Old
Testament texts like Psalm 103 offered a preview of what the New Testament
confirmed and generations of Christians have confessed: God is a Father.
The
second section of Psalm 103 offers such a "teaching moment." It begins by
echoing God's self-revelation to Moses - The LORD, the -LORD-
a God
merciful and gracious, slow to-anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Ex. 34:6-7
This is the reason why God is so active in our lives - forgiving, healing,
redeeming, and renewing. He is true to Himself, and He is faithful to us as
Creator and as Father.
In addition to being inspired prayers, the psalms also offer inspired
"teaching moments." Within the Psalter there is a whole category classified
as didactic, or, teaching psalms. But even in those psalms which are
primarily concerned with the praise of God, there are verses which can not
only enliven our prayer, but also enrich and deepen our knowledge of God.
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flowers like the flower in the field;
the wind blows and he is gone
and this place never sees
him again.
As
a father has compassion on his sons,
the LORD has pity on those who fear Him;
for He knows of what we are made,
He remembers that we are dust.
For as the heavens are high above the
earth
so strong is His love for those who fear
Him.
As far as the east is from the west
so far does He remove our sins.
The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy
His wrath will come to an end;
He will not be angry forever.
He does not treat us according to our
sins
nor repay us according to our faults.
Knowledge of the Father
Part 3
Psalm 103
II