“Your grace is worth more than life.” What is life? It is said, it is one thing to exist, and it is another thing to live. One can exist and be or feel unhappy; but, on the other hand, to live, implies, in some way or in some measure, to feel happy.
Setting aside all abstract considerations, let us call life, as it is commonly spoken as, a set of pleasant things (health, prestige, friendship…) which make being alive a pleasant experience.
There quite few words in the Bible that encompass that same idea: grace, love, mercy, loyalty: it is God Himself, in as far as He loves, cares for, and protects. Well then, the psalmist, probably based on a personal experience, comes to tell us in verse four that, however small the measure be that man experiences the Father’s love, or that however small be his pleasure in His presence, man is going to find, in that experience, more sweetness and riches than in all of life’s satisfactions.
Life, naturally, offers joys, but these are passing and precarious. A person is joyful in a given moment, and half an hour later, while walking out into the street, he remembers that unhappy situation, and all of a sudden, his world is filled with sadness. Another person wakes up rested and happy, but, halfway through the morning, receives a letter with bad news and their soul is filled with worries and anxiety. We could easily go on and on with various examples. Everything is so ephemeral!
After going through various stages, after looking at the same old thing in different ways, after filling his personal files with dormant memories, man, by himself, and by that virtue we call wisdom, precipitated by the experience of living, comes to the conclusion that the true source of peace and joy, of security and freedom is God, only God: Your grace is worth more than life itself.
Excerpted from the book “Psalms for Life” (Chapter III, subsection “Life: Banquet and Celebration”) by Father Ignacio Larrañaga.
