Start the day with a Psalm

Those who celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours start nearly every day of prayer with Psalm 95:

Come, let us sing to the Lord
and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us.
Let us approach him with praise and thanksgiving
and sing joyful songs to the Lord.

(That is why this is used as an Invitatory Psalm, inviting us to prayer.)

The Lord is God, the mighty God,
the great king over all the gods.
He holds in his hands the depths of the earth
and the highest mountains as well.
He made the sea; it belongs to him,
the dry land too, for it was formed by his hands.

(Good stuff! What a great way to begin the day!)

Come, then, let us bow down and worship,
bending the knee before the Lord, our maker.
For he is our God and we are his people,
the flock he shepherds.

(And then the Psalm, this great invitation to pray, becomes an invitation to obey.)

Today, listen to the voice of the Lord:
Do not grow stubborn,
as your fathers did in the wilderness,
when at Meriba and Massah
they challenged me and provoked me,
although they had seen all of my works.

(Now we have reached the part of Psalm 95 repeated by today’s first reading, from the letter to the Hebrews. “Meriba” and “Massah” [literally meaning “contention” and “testing”] are the names given to the places where the children of Israel contended with and put the Lord to the test.)

Forty years I endured that generation.
I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray
and they do not know my ways.”
So I swore in my anger,
“They shall not enter into my rest.”

Okay, not the happiest way to end a Psalm – especially one that began so festively – but our faith is a faith of true joy that lasts forever, not a shallow smiley-face songfest.

Our prayer must not be a prayer of just words and feelings, but of action and commitment as well. That is the way of eternal joy and eternal peace - through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.