Bless the Lord O my soul

Who satisfies you with good things

So that your youth is renewed like an eagle’s

Psalm 103:5

My daughter used to have a pet spider which lived in her bathroom. She named him Barry and had long meaningful conversations with him during which he offered her much good counsel.  I am resisting the temptation to anthropomorphise the eagle, ascribing to that majestic bird the exultation of flight, the revelling in the strength and skill of huge wings and the keenness of vision that can spy good things from an immense height. Nevertheless, what would it like be to have one’s youth renewed like the eagle, to know again that excitement of limitless possibility, to see the world so clearly in black and white and to have the confidence to launch oneself out onto the dangerous thermal currents of life. 

I knew someone once who said that whenever he heard this verse he thought of asparagus and Laphroaig. I’m not as convinced about the life-enhancing properties of asparagus but if malt whiskey had been available at Cana I am convinced the water jars would have been full of it.  Equally I am sure that the good things spoken of in the psalm have little to do with the stomach. These good things of life are surely of the spirit and so available to all: love, beauty, truth, goodness, friendship, and the greatest of these is love, the foundation of all good things.  These things are there for every one of us if we only use the keen sight of our souls, glimpse the infinite possibilities of life and trust in the Lord to bear us up.