I recently spent some time walking a Christian labyrinth. Christian labyrinths came about because not every Christian could make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Thus labyrinths were developed as a way of creating a mini-pilgrimage by which a Christian could journey with God.
This idea of life as a journey is an ancient one, and a modern one. Contemporary songs like “Life is a Highway” or “The Long and Winding Road” put the image to music. And, ancient songs like the Psalms of Ascents celebrated the journey of the Jews to Jerusalem for annual festivals and feasts.
In Ps. 139 David envisions our lives as a journey. He begins and ends the psalm with the word “way” (vv. 3, 24). That word refers to conduct, but it also refers to the movement of our life. Our direction. Our journey. This, in essence, is the theme of the entire book of Psalms, which begins in Chapter 1 by talking about our “way” (1:1,6).
As David scans over the journey of his life, he is struck by the presence of God. When he sat down, God was there (2). When he rose, God was there (2). When he was thinking a private thought, God was there (3). When he was about to say something to someone, God was there (4). When he was in heavenly and sacred places, places where it was easy to sense God’s presence, God was there (8). When he was in hellish and dark places, places where it was nearly impossible to sense God’s presence, God was there (9). No matter where David was on the way, God was present.
What a remarkable gift to have this presence and to be able to recognize this presence. What a gift to be able, as Francis Thompson did, to look back over times of rejection, despair, poverty, illness and panic yet still see this “Hound of Heaven” lovingly pursuing us. Most of us, I think, if pressed, would choose darkness with a God who is lovingly present, than light with a God who is strangely absent.
David is also struck by the purpose of God. God was not only present to David. He had a purpose for David. God himself knit David together in his mother’s womb (15). And God had written a book filled with his innumerable thoughts about David’s life, hopes for David’s life, and aspirations for David’s life (16-17). God has plans and purposes for David on this way. David recognizes that, at times, he fails to live out God’s plans (24). Sometimes David has walked that broad way which Jesus speaks of-that way which pains God. Nonetheless he celebrates that he is part of a plan.
What a grace to be able to glimpse the pages of God’s book for us, to live with a sense of divine destiny and to know that our earthly lives have a heavenly purpose.
But unlike David, many of us have little sense of God’s presence in our lives or purpose for our lives. Caught up in the swift current of habits and busyness, the way passes by so quickly that we rarely seem to find God or fulfill God’s purpose for the day.
This is why Ignatius developed the examen. It is a brief way of stopping, reviewing your day, and looking for hints of God’s presence and God’s purpose. I’ve written extensively about this practice elsewhere, so I won’t repeat myself here. But allow Ps. 139 to inspire you to engage in the examen and to become more attuned on a daily basis to God’s presence and purpose.
