Psalm sixty-two

I am going to tell you something I recently learned about the sixty-second Psalm (O God, my God, I rise early to be with You…). I was asked to talk to some young brethren about it. I immersed myself in pages that led me to something that is generally known, namely that this Psalm, which the Fathers of the early Church had recommended that it be recited every day, morning or evening, has been fixed in its place in Orthros, that is in the morning, by the guidance of Saint John Chrysostom. The thing I have learned is that this instruction to fix the psalm in the morning was not improvised by Chrysostom. What he intended through it was for us to help ourselves, every day, before anything else, to acknowledge that God’s favor is more important than everything we will face in our day; more important than our education and our work, than our food and drink…, than everything we can think of or aspire to. Wherever we are, whatever our conditions and circumstances are, we have to keep yearning to God Whose mercy is better than our whole life. This Psalm is our guide to what is best.