“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. - Keep in the sunlight.”

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”  - Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor from 161 to 180)

Scripture Text: (PS 18:2-3A, 3BC-4, 5-6, 7)
R. (see 7) In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
The breakers of death surged round about me,
the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The cords of the nether world enmeshed me,
the snares of death overtook me.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.

This psalm response comes at a good time for me. It is a reminder to let go of stress before it becomes distress. As we all know, stress from job, relationships, the larger community, life in general can weigh on us and cause us to worry and fret. Stress generally makes most of us uncomfortable, unhappy, and in cases physically and emotionally ill. If left unresolved, or if ignored, over time stress can lead to “distress” and manifest itself in feelings of pain and suffering.

So it is good for the psalmist to remind us that the Lord will hear our voices when we call out in distress. Does the Lord make the stress go away? Not really. If you are stressed because of a job, or financial issues, or a rocky relationship, or if you feel stressed because of poverty, or immigration, or the death penalty, or the threat of war or terror, the Lord doesn’t remove those stressors from your life.

So what does the psalmist mean by saying the Lord hears our voices? Is God a sounding board, absorbing all the prayers of humankind, cataloging them in an unimaginably large databank? We share our woes with the Lord – how does that help relieve stress?

One way, I think, is that knowing the Lord hears enables us to have perspective. Our stresses seem pretty large to us as individuals, but are not terribly significant in the grand creation of the universe. Knowing the Lord listens can provide us with a calming sense of the true insignificance of our current worries.

The Lord also listens by sending us examples of how to handle stresses. Jesus is perhaps the greatest example.

The Lord also listens by inviting us to let go of our stresses – to turn them over to the Lord, our rock of refuge.