Having empathy is a first step in the disciple’s way of generosity. Today’s reading begins, “Be gracious to me . . . for I am in distress, my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.” Here is prayer offered in a time of loss and spoken by one who is exhausted. That description may or may not describe you right now, but continue listening to the psalmist’s prayer. He feels like he has been forgotten and “plotted against.” His sense of dread is all-encompassing, even if his fears and feelings don’t entirely make sense.

Perhaps it seems strange to offer this prayer as your own, although there may be times when it’s exactly what you would pray. Either way, I invite you to imagine it as someone’s prayer today. Here is a key understanding held by those who advocate for use of the full Psalter, even its difficult parts. Ask yourself, “Who might be praying this prayer today?” Then imagine praying it with them, perhaps with someone mourning the loss of a spouse or child, or with a victim of abuse, or with someone struggling to pay medical bills or to find the next meal.

Invite the Spirit into the process, both to enlighten your imagination and to help you bear difficult things, even your own wordless groans (see Romans 8:26). Here is work the Holy One inspires in us as we prepare for the Holy Week journey, and we are able to do it because Jesus walked the journey before us. With him we can complete this prayer with confidence: “But I trust in you, O LORD. . . . My times are in your hand . . . deliver me.”