Most of us are so removed from agricultural realities that we fail fully to embrace the image of chaff in today’s psalm.

Do we still believe there are “evil spirits who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls,” as the prayer of St. Michael the Archangel memorably phrases it?

Over against our human unreliability stand the rock-solid assurances of God.

Today and everyday we are invited to pray with the psalmist.

I know that holding onto anger or resentment harms me more than it affects the perceived offender, and I know, too, that not to forgive is to practice self-righteousness and even to play God. But sometimes it is difficult to let go of these wrongs.

Many years ago, when I was a graduate student in a venerable British university, I would wander into my college’s cathedral for evensong.