PSALMS: Praying for Our Leaders

By Frank Savadera, SJ

Quite amusing it was for me to read through a selection of the Psalms of Trust (ie. Psalms 11, 23, 62, 91 and 121) and catch myself praying for our leaders. It is not new for us to formulate our usual “Prayers of the Faithful” during Mass by petitioning our Lord to “watch over” our church and political leaders (and in a special way our pirests and our local superiors). My important discovery in going through the readings, is the realization that we can effectively appropriate the Psalms of Trust to serve a similar purpose of praying for those tasked to govern over us.

For instance, I must accept that I’ve learned to take for granted the value of Psalm 23. The verses have become quite common placed and in most instances, I’ve grown to think of “the Lord as my Shepherd” psalm as appropriate only for our use during funeral, wake or burial services. Quite often as well, we pray with these psalms with only our personal needs in mind (i.e., longings for rest, still waters, comfort, for deliverance from our sins and enemies, etc.). I’m taking up the challenge of John F. Cragman to “test the theology of the biblical imagery” that we find in the Psalms and make it the “springboard” for our more meaningful use in prayer. In the Psalms of Trust says B. Anderson, certain imageries of Yahweh include that of the most concerned shepherd and gracious host. We would like to think that these most ideal imageries that we ascribe to Yahweh are the same ideals that we hope to find in the life lived by our worldly leaders as well. In reality however, our earthly leaders are not like Yahweh. Our leaders fail. They are prone to corruption and the use of violence simply because power, influence and greed can easily eat them up. We remember our very real frustrations with our leaders and we pray and petition our Lord to help and guide them, that is for the sake of our countries, the poor who need help the most and our institutions. It is in this light that I see the Psalms of Trust as appropriate prayers for the further enlightenment and well-being of our leaders. We express our trust in them, by openly articulating our hope that they lead us to greater prosperity, to restful waters (23:2), to more secure situations wherein fear no longer grips us (23:4) and where we will be more free to celebrate goodness and love (23:6) in our societies. In our prayer, we give our leaders their due and think of them as our kings (queens) and protectors from our enemies and pursuers (91:3) and the dispensers of wisdom, right judgement and formidable character. Isn’t it true that we rarely pray for our leaders? May the wisdom we derive from the Psalms of Trust help us acknowledge our longings and desires that our earthly leaders truly serve us as they have hereto been mandated by God and the heavens. It is a joy knowing that we can pray for our leaders by collectively, as a nation, taking seriously in prayer our Psalms of Trust.