psalm 30: our experience of god 3rd week advent thursday

Many times the prayers in the mass are too intellectual, too theological, too heady it does not appeal to the heart.  In contrast the beauty in praying the psalms is that these are personal prayers coming from a broad range of experience – joyful, sorrowful, desperate, angry, in dire need, thankfulness, contrite, misery, hopefulness, deliverance, guilt – all of which are very human experiences. 

Psalm 30 is such a psalm.  It is one's experience of God - For his anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his good will.  At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing.  Sing praise to the LORD, give thanks to his holy name.

Discernment is primarily getting in touch with this experience of God, how he worked in your life, how he intervened, he guided you, perhaps even "punished" you in order to make you better understand things.  Discernment is getting in touch with the joy, the sorrow, the despair, the anger, the contriteness, the hopefulness in that relationship with God.  GO back to these experiences in your silent prayer and it would always be handy to have with you the psalms – they can help you get in touch with the experience and its emotions.