If we believe in a God who “protects the orphan and the widow,” we cannot remain indifferent to any form of marginalization—within the family, the workplace, or the community—emphasizes Fr. Piotr Kwiatek OFMCap, a Capuchin friar and psychologist, initiator of psalm therapy, in a commentary by the Heschel Center of the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) on Psalm 146, sung on the Third Sunday of Advent, December 14.
As Fr. Piotr Kwiatek writes, “there are psalms that work like a breath after a long immersion in the depths.” Psalm 146 is one of them—it “opens the lungs of the soul.” The psalmist lists God as the One who feeds, liberates, raises, protects, heals, and loves. “This enumeration functions like a litany of hope, like a mantra for a wounded heart,” comments the author of Psalm Therapy. The psalm “shifts the center of gravity from the fragile human ‘self’ to the enduring God.”
A God of Concreteness and Fidelity
The first part of the psalm for the Third Sunday of Advent “strikes at the very core of the human need for security.” It is God who “keeps faith forever” (Ps 146:6c). “In attachment theory, psychology speaks of a secure base—we need someone who will not disappear when difficulties arise. God is presented here as the One who responds to our most fundamental deficits: hunger and the lack of freedom,” we read in Fr. Kwiatek’s commentary.
The psalmist writes of God: “He secures justice for the oppressed; he gives food to the hungry” (Ps 146:7). As the friar explains, “from a cognitive perspective, this passage teaches us to redirect attention from lack to the Source.” Fr. Kwiatek adds that “Midrash Tehillim notes that human beings naturally tend to ‘lean on an arm that will eventually fall,’ because every human arm grows tired. The psalm does not attack humanity, but the illusion that a human being can be a savior.”
At the same time, Psalm 146 is not an invitation to distrust people. Instead, it calls us to “free ourselves from expectations that no human being is capable of carrying.”
A Therapist Who Straightens the Back
The psalm presents God as a Therapist who works with both body and spirit: “The Lord gives sight to the blind; the Lord lifts those who are bowed down” (Ps 146:8). As the commentator for the Heschel Center of KUL reminds us, “loss of sight in the Bible is not only a physical tragedy but also an image of a heart that no longer sees goodness, possibilities, or new paths.” Moreover, “in depression, the world truly grows dark: a person sees only what confirms their despairing narrative about themselves—and in this sense God ‘restores sight’ by opening us to alternative, brighter interpretations of our own story.”
The term “those who are bowed down” (kefufim) literally describes someone bent in half, crushed by the weight of life. “God performs here the gesture of lifting a person’s chin so that they can look upward,” writes the author of Psalm Therapy. “This is a restoration of dignity. When we feel crushed by stress or failure, Psalm 146 reminds us that God is the force that straightens our ‘spiritual spine.’” The Capuchin adds: “Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav taught that ‘a person must each day find within themselves good points (nekudot tovot) to rise from a fall’—God is the One who illuminates these points, restoring sight where we saw only darkness.”
The psalm also says that “the Lord protects the stranger.” This verse touches the experience of being foreign, a migrant, someone uprooted from their context. “Psalm 146 assures us that precisely where you feel least ' at home,’ God stands guard—not to control, but to protect your fragile dignity and to accompany you in the process of finding a home within yourself.”
Defender of Relationships and Guardian of Boundaries
God is also the One who “watches over the orphan and the widow” (Ps 146:9)—people who in ancient Israel found themselves in especially tragic circumstances. “Psychologically, ‘the orphan and the widow’ are archetypes of our inner states of abandonment and helplessness. God enters the space left by broken bonds as Father and Protector,” Fr. Piotr Kwiatek points out. At the same time, “evil, manipulation, and harm are not ignored by God. Justice is a form of love that says ‘no’ to destruction.”
A Faithful Companion
God is a faithful Companion of people on the margins—“including the inner margins we carry within ourselves.” Psalm 146 teaches us “to name our needs, to recognize violence—including subtle forms of it—and to seek support in Someone greater than our fears.” The psalm invites us to “heal our way of seeing, to touch our shame, and to experience that where we feel most alien, God is most ' at home.’” The psalmist points to a path from “a life built on control and fear to a life grounded in trust that Someone greater ‘reigns forever’ even over what we do not understand.” This psalm becomes even more eloquent in the life of Jesus Christ—God-with-us.
Piotr Kwiatek OFMCap – PhD in psychology, priest and religious of the Kraków Province of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He completed a three-year Gestalt therapy program in Philadelphia (USA) and received training in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) at the Albert Ellis Institute in New York. He teaches positive interventions at SWPS University—studies recommended by the founder of positive psychology, Prof. Martin E. P. Seligman. Author of books from the Positive Psychology and Faith series, as well as Psalm Therapy and A Workbook for the Psalms. Creator of the free well-being app “Dobroteka 2.0.” More at: www.piotrkwiatek.com
Heschel Center, Catholic University of Lublin