Praying the Psalms: 37:1-18

The other Sunday the Gospel reading was taken from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus instructs us not to worry about what we need to wear or eat.

“Don’t worry”?!! You have to be kidding me? How else am I going to get all the things done that I need to? How else am I going to train my children or educate them? I have to worry I’ll miss something essential if I don’t.”

Yet look at this Psalm: “fret not thyself because of …” is repeated several times. Why? Could it be because the difference between legitimate planning and thinking ahead and worrying until we cannot function is a very small step? Yes, this might happen and that might happen. Yes, there are wicked people in this world who do many cruel things (and some of them appear to be on the side of the angels too). Yes, we might have an even bigger economic crash, yes, I or my children might have life-threatening illness. Even if all of those things come to pass, will we have helped the situation by fretting beforehand? I think not..

So today when you start to panic and worry..”fret not thyself”

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