Repeated call to be saved shows trust in God, pope says at audience

Published: 2005-01-26

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The prayer, "O Lord, save me," repeated in the Psalms, in the New Testament and in the lives of modern believers is an acknowledgment that God is the only one who can save people, Pope John Paul II said. "Authentic trust always sees God as love, even if at times we find it difficult to understand fully his actions," the pope said Jan. 26 at his weekly general audience. During the gathering in the Vatican audience hall, Pope John Paul looked at the "deadly nightmare" described in Psalm 116 and in the psalmist's praise for God who heard him and saved him. In the psalm, "the image is that of a prey caught in the trap of an inescapable hunter," the pope said. Risking death, the psalmist also experiences "psychological pain" and says, "I fell into distress and sorrow." The pope said, "But from that tragic abyss a cry was launched toward the only one who could extend a hand and snatch the anguished supplicant from that inextricable tangle."

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