October 13: Sleepless Nights, Poet of the Week, Psalm 28

.He had endured a year of nearly sleepless nights, his restlessness getting to the point where Annie would send him off to the living room

Ives endures many difficulties in his life.  An inexplicable mystical vision.  The murder of his son.  Decades of paralyzing grief.  At times, Ives doubts in God, gets angry with Him.  Yet, he never turns his back on the Church.  Even in his darkest hours, Ives still attends Mass and believes in God's goodness.

I, myself, am struggling this evening.  Money problems again.  I don't want to get into details, but there have been a few unexpected expenses.  Tomorrow night, my daughter has her first high school band/choral concert.  She needs some clothes.  Then there's car insurance and my daughter's braces..  It's a pretty deep hole, and I can't seem to see the sunlight at the top.

Tomorrow is my twentieth wedding anniversary.  I can't buy my wife anything.  Not even a card.  That's pretty much the story of our lives.  I feel bad that I haven't provided a better life for my wife and kids.  Every bill is a struggle, and one missed paycheck would be a disaster.  I am a failure in this arena.  My family has never really known a day without financial woes.

I have chosen King David as my Poet of the Week.  The Book of Psalms is full of happy poems and sad poems.  Poems of great rejoicing, and poems of great despair.  They are for everyday life and everyday strife.

Saint Marty has a little strife to deal with tonight.

Psalm 28

A Psalm for David

Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent
to me:  lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them
that go down into the pit.

2.  Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto
thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

3.  Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the
workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neigh-
bours, but mischief is in their hearts.

4.  Give them according to their deed, and according to
the wickedness of their endeavours:  give them after the
work of their hands, render to them their desert.

5.  Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor
the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and
not buld them up.

6.  Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice
of my supplications.

7.  The LORD is my strength and my shield, my heart
trusted in him, and I am helped:  therefore my heart
greatly rejoiceth and with my song will I praise him.

8.  The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving
strength of his anointed.

9.  Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance:  feed
them also, and lift them up for ever.