The first affirmation expresses the absence of self-concerned anxiety. Then, in the image of the weaned child at its mother’s breast, the psalmist reveals the life of absolute trust in God. The unweaned child is at its mother’s breast for its own needs, its own agenda—milk. The weaned child, however, has no such need or agenda. It is content to rest in the mother’s arms and receive whatever attention she chooses to give. The stage of purgation is characterized by the struggle of two selves: the self that is not yet all that it has been created to be in God’s will for our wholeness, and the
...more
