GOD keeps the little ones in His mercy, who walk before Him in the land of the living (Psalm 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9). To think as God does is for the disciples of Jesus to walk after Him, denying oneself and taking up one’s cross (Mark 8:27-35).
I shall walk before the Lord
The Hebrew Psalm 116 is divided into Psalm 114-115 in the Greek and Latin versions. This Hallel psalm is a song of praise, the first psalm sung after meal, and possibly the psalm sung by Jesus and His group after the Last Supper (Matthew 26:30). As a prayer of thanksgiving, it praises God because God has rescued the psalmist from a life-threatening situation. God has heard his cry for help and granted his petition and rescued him. That is why the psalmist, in turn, declares his love for God, his fidelity to the Lord.
Death was like a dark power that was seizing him and dragging him to the netherworld of sheol. In his desperate situation he called upon the Lord, and his distress turned into grateful rejoicing. “Our God” is undeniably gracious and just and compassionate, true to His covenant relationship with His people. The psalmist’s confidence and devotion is bolstered by the experience that God looks after the little ones who have nobody to turn to. Even as he was brought low by his personal condition, the saving love of God for him was there. His soul was liberated from death; he was freed from tears, grief and sorrow, and his feet from stumbling farther down. Now in a more secure condition, the psalmist is determined to walk in the sight of God with fidelity and gratitude.
Taking Jesus aside
AS Jesus and his disciples were on the way for the villages of Caesarea Philippi to proclaim to the people God’s saving love, Jesus sought to find out how His words and actions are understood by the people and also by His own disciples. He asked the disciples what the people are saying about Him. The answers were striking: people thought Jesus was John the Baptizer, or Elijah, or one of the prophets—all dead religious figures earlier concerned with the coming of the reign of God, who the people thought had come back from the dead. Jesus was, in the mind of the people, a prophetic figure returned to life, a point lost on Peter when he heard Jesus’ words about His death.
The faith of His disciples concerned Jesus, as well: Who do they think He is? The disciples, in fact, asked this question among themselves (Mark 4:41), when they witnessed how Jesus calmed the angry sea threatening them all. In the name of his companions Peter answered that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God, the awaited Messiah. Peter took a step farther than the people, but not enough. Not just a prophetic figure and not just the popular messianic conception revolving around the enigmatic figure of the Son of Man who would come on the clouds at the end. To the shock of His disciples, Jesus confided to them that He would be rejected and killed, but that He would rise again. That path projection was too much for Peter, who took Jesus literally aside and tried to talk Him out of such self-understanding that could jeopardize His acceptance by the public.
Come after Me, take up your cross
Jesus rebuked and silenced Peter and the other disciples for their obvious misunderstanding of His mission. Their confession that Jesus is the Messiah carried only the popular connotation of glory and triumph for the Messiah and for those who follow Him. Jesus “turned around” and answered Peter’s rebuke of Him with His own rebuke of them. Taken aside by Peter, Jesus would not be diverted from His right way and emphatically pointed out that Peter had joined the ranks of Satan, whose principal intention is to subvert God’s plan. Jesus demanded that Peter return to following Him: “Get behind Me!”
The way Peter’s mind was working clearly was not “thinking as God does, but as human beings do;” he was set not on divine things, but on human things. Jesus is the way; His way is doing the will of God (Mark 3:35), being the least and servant of all (9:35), offering one’s life for the sake of the gospel (8:35). To follow Jesus means denying oneself, taking up the cross. In the divine plan, the seed must die before it can bear fruit; the one “who wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life” for the sake of Jesus will save it.
Alálaong bagá, where do our minds dwell? What path are we taking? Saving or augmenting our possessions and position and reputation, wanting to gain the whole world but losing what is most valuable? Are we walking before the Lord, filled with trust and praise? Are we behind Jesus in imitation of Him?
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