The Psalms of David -- Psalm 16

This is a psalm we pray during the hours before a divine liturgy; especially helpful to me personally is the following verse, which often serves as a meditation for times of temptation (good for praying on the knots of a prayer rope):

Arise, O LORD, confront him, cast him down, deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword.

Also telling are the last two verses, with all their talk of the unrighteous' belly being filled with its portion in this life, as opposed to the righteous' being satisfied only when he "beholds the form" or "awakes in the likeness" of God. This truly is the struggle I know I face: determining day by day--often minute by minute!--where my satisfaction will come from. Will I find my portion in what is passing away in this world with all its passions, or will I be satisfied only by beholding and becoming like the One who is above it all, who changes and heals it all (myself included, if I let Him)?

Fr. Patrick talks a lot about how St. Peter heard the psalms explained to him by Christ after the resurrection and used them when he preached. St. Peter was an ignorant fisherman when Christ found him, but preached the Messiah from the prayerbook of the Church. Comforting to me, another Peter, who desires to meet the Word through the psalms. Arise, O LORD...