The life of peace is one in faithful relationship to Yahweh and His community. In an ideal world, tranquility springs forth when we root ourselves in both.

Psalm 130 offers us a beautiful picture of faith in the midst of a crisis. The beauty of the psalm is both in its universal appeal and its depiction of a gracious and present God who delivers.

The psalms don't lie. Their beauty and their ability to be immediately utilized by contemporary readers lies in their brutal honesty about the way life is. There's something about this vulnerability in the presence of God that is deeply spiritual. For all the good we can thank God for, you and I live with the reality that our world is not as it should be.

We spend our lives in pursuit. We pursue pleasure, security, satisfaction, and many other things we believe align with our vision of the good life. But the Psalms of Ascent show us, and Jesus persistently tells us, that the good life is rooted in our proximity to the source of all that is good, God's self. Psalm 128.

"What's prayer like for you?" While my pastoral question comes from a place of care and curiosity, it often falls like a judgmental hammer. Its followed by several responses. An awkward, uncomfortable stumbling about or a dismissive brush to the side, "it's fine," are not uncommon. Occasionally it's met with disarming humor, "what prayer life?" or brutal honesty, "meh, it's pretty non-existent." The reality is I rarely meet a person satisfied with their prayer life. 

When we think about who we are, what it means to be human, we realize that all life is meant to be communion. We were made to live in intimacy and love with God and one another. We were made to live in Love. Because we live in a fractured state within a shattered world, so much around us pulls us away from communion towards disintegration. The distractions in us and around us drag us towards the non-being of isolation. We are caught in an undertow of sin.