The Lord is my chosen portion
August 19, 2023 - Saturday, 19th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 11
Psalm 16 is a prayer for protection. The psalmist declares his faith in the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and rejects any other gods. Then, he declares the Lord to be his chosen portion and cup (Ps 16:5). Perhaps, the author of this psalm was not David but someone who belonged to the tribe of Levi that had no allotted portion in the Promised Land because the Lord was their inheritance (Num 18:20). Or if it was David, that he is teaching us a profound lesson about the highest value in human life.
One of the greatest Ancient kings was Alexander the Great. He was a gifted military general and under his rule, the Macedonian Empire encompassed a portion of Europe, Asia, and Africa. History preserves for us his encounter with a Cynic philosopher, Diogenes, who lived a life of poverty. Alexander asked whether there was anything he could do for him, Diogenes replied: “Yes, there is something you can do for me. Step out of my sunlight."
We live in a world that is marked by secularism and consumerism. God is excluded from our daily discourse, and profit influences our decision-making. It is within this world that the message of the greatest king of Israel comes as a challenge to our way of life: “the Lord is my chosen portion and cup; You control my fate” (Ps 16:5). This statement aims to redirect our lives. The most important thing in life is our relationship with God. He alone can show us “the path of life”; in his presence, we find the “fulness of joy” (Ps 16:11).
We live as if God did not exist, and we are told that the pursuit of wealth can bring us happiness. But, then why are we so unhappy? Jesus told a wealthy young man to sell everything, give the money to the poor, and then follow him. The Gospel tells us that he could not do it and went away sad (see Mark 10:21-22). On the other hand, St. Francis rejected his father’s inheritance and followed the path of poverty that Jesus traced before his eyes. We are told that he was an extremely happy person.
“The Lord is my chosen portion and cup; You control my fate” (Ps 16:5). The Gospel presents Jesus and his disciples living a life of simplicity. In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear Saint Peter saying that he has neither gold nor silver (Acts 3:6). But, he had something else that money could not buy (see Acts 8:18-20), namely the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 3:6-7). The apostles of Christ learned how to survive in any circumstances of life and found out that having food and clothing was enough to satisfy their material needs (see 1 Tim 6:8). What they valued most was their relationship with Jesus Christ (Phil 3:8-9). How about us?