¹⁰ Some sat in darkness and deepest gloom,
    imprisoned in iron chains of misery.
¹¹ They rebelled against the words of God,
    scorning the counsel of the Most High.
¹² That is why he broke them with hard labor;
    they fell, and no one was there to help them.
¹³ “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
    and he saved them from their distress.
¹⁴ He led them from the darkness and deepest gloom;
    he snapped their chains.
¹⁵ Let them praise the Lord for his great love
    and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
¹⁶ For he broke down their prison gates of bronze;
    he cut apart their bars of iron.

Psalm 107:10-16

Dear God, the passage from Psalms for the Catholic church today is Psalm 107:23-31, but while I was at mass last night reading these verses I wanted to see the rest of the psalm. It was quite something. It basically talked about all of these different types of people who run from you and how they are often brought back into worship through suffering and struggle. There is nothing like coming to the end of ourselves that will reveal the truth to us about who you are.

It reminds me of my answer a couple of weeks ago when I wondered what I would answer a reporter if asked, like Pope Francis was of 60 Minutes, in the midst of everything in the world that is wrong, what gives me hope? My answer: You have built something in all of us that longs for you. That longs to find you. It’s that God-hole I heard about in my Baptist church as a kid. We (and I’m counting myself in this) all try to come up with idols that we think will fill the hole. Possessions. Relationships. Power. Security. Comfort. Leisure. Influence. Even self-gratification.

As I read the rest of psalm 107 yesterday, this was the group of people described by the psalmist who broke my heart. I don’t know if the psalmist is talking about literal prisoners who committed crimes or figurative prisoners of worlds of their own making. I took it to mean the latter. I pictured someone like Bridget Jones in Bridget Jones’s Diary at the beginning of the movie singing “All By Myself,” drinking heavily, and being wholly unhappy. Of course, that movie is Hollywood (even though it’s set in London) so she finds her happiness at the end of the year in a relationship, but we all know that relationship will be troubled. How can it be whole? She has no peace.

Father, first, help me to identify any idols I have in my life today. Show me anything I am doing to try to displace you from my God-hole with something else. You would think I wouldn’t do that anymore, but of course I do. I’m an idiot. Of course I do. And also give me your eyes to see anyone in my sphere who might be in the gloomy figurative prison described in Psalm 107:10-16. Help me to introduce them to you.

I ask all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen