Ps 26:1,4,13-14
The Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom should I fear?
The Lord is the fortress of my life,
whom should I dread?
One thing I ask of the Lord,
one thing I seek:
to dwell in the Lord’s house
all the days of my life,
to enjoy the sweetness of the Lord,
to seek out his temple.
This I believe: I shall see the goodness of the Lord,
in the land of the living.
Put your hope in the Lord, be strong,
let your heart be bold, put your hope in the Lord.
Whom shall we fear? This question is already answered, because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, as the Apostle of the Gentiles teaches us with complete conviction (Rom 8:39).
However, in order to attain this certainty of faith, an indispensable prerequisite must be fulfilled. Although our Father gives us all the protection of our life, moved by His love for humankind, it is up to us to seek our security in God and not in created things. The latter are fragile and perishable. “Put not your trust in princes, beings of dust that cannot save” – Psalm 145 tells us (v. 3).
Precisely in recent years these words of the psalm have become very topical. Take, for example, the so-called “pandemic”, which was hastily proclaimed in the wake of the outbreak of the coronavirus, and all the measures taken to prevent it. If you look closely at this situation, you can see how governments can take the wrong course. The civil authorities, unfortunately supported by certain scientists, imposed severe measures on the population, massively restricting their freedom. Unfortunately, the ecclesiastical authorities supported these measures. This affected almost the entire world population, which they tried to convince or even coerce in many ways to submit to an injection that had not yet been sufficiently tested. In the meantime, we know that this “vaccine” does not protect and that the precautionary measures were more harmful than beneficial to the population.
In the context of a biblical meditation, I do not want to delve further into this controversial subject. However, I would strongly recommend that everyone should develop an informed opinion on this matter, which is not based solely on the information we receive from those who implemented the many erroneous measures.
What is essential in the context of this meditation is that we understand that we cannot place our security in human authorities, whatever they may be. This is certainly one of the most important lessons of this drama which, unfortunately, has not yet concluded.
Today’s psalm wisely teaches us that only in God can we find the longed-for security and peace of soul. Everything else is but an illusion, for earthly things are transitory and people, whatever their position, can fail.
If we want to receive in our lives the blessings of this psalm, it is necessary that we submit all the securities on which we base ourselves to a spiritual examination. This is a fruitful task, which will prepare us for the two dimensions that the holy Season of Advent has in view: both for the Feast of the Savior’s Birth and for his glorious Second Coming.
Is our life totally focused on God? Does God really occupy the first place in our life? Does our heart belong to the Child of Bethlehem? Is the Lord our comfort and our joy, our light and our salvation? Are we attentively awaiting the Return of Christ and are we following His advice to lead our life with vigilance?
Evidently, the times of crisis that we are living through, which, from my point of view, have an apocalyptic dimension, have not yet come to an end. In that sense, it becomes even more important to put all our trust in God, so that we can exclaim with the psalmist, “The Lord is the fortress of my life, whom should I dread?”
Just as the psalmist longs to dwell always in the Temple of the Lord, so our heart must be totally focused on the returning Lord and find in Him its security and its home. Come what may, we are to abide by the words of the psalm, “Put your hope in the Lord, be strong, let your heart be bold, put your hope in the Lord.”