Some Revelatory Insights from the Psalms for Catholic Medical Practice

As the Catholic Church commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of Dei Verbum (DV), the dogmatic constitution on divine revelation, it is a timely opportunity to reflect once again on the place of sacred scriptures in Catholic medical practice. In line with this, I advance that the psalms, in particular, help contextualize Catholic medical practice within the milieu of divine revelation. Similar to what I wrote in a letter to the Linacre Quarterly, doctrinal foundations should underlie Catholic medical practice (Pugeda 2024, 111). Moreover, Catholic medical practitioners could better develop their Catholic identity by reading and praying the psalms (McTavish 2019). In what follows, I will present an overview of sacred scriptures, an examination of the psalms, and an elucidation of revelatory insights from the psalms that are helpful for Catholic medical practice. While related literature usually focuses on a few psalms, I will compile several here to highlight the creative diversity among the psalms.

Sacred Scriptures

Pope Paul VI promulgated DV near the end of the Second Vatican Council on 18 November 1965. In large part, DV has renewed our appreciation of sacred scriptures. According to DV, sacred scriptures teach “solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation” (Second Vatican Council 1965, 11). As such, the Council “earnestly and especially urges all the Christian faithful…to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures the ‘excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 3:8). ‘For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’” (Second Vatican Council 1965, 25). In effect, DV affirms the salvific nature of sacred scriptures. With that in mind, let us see how they give meaning to Catholic medical practice.

The dual identities of being a Catholic and a medical practitioner should ideally feed into each other. On the one hand, medical practice should inculcate in oneself the virtues necessary to imitate Jesus, the divine physician (McTavish 2018). At the same time, the Catholic faith should broaden the mission of medical practice beyond a strictly worldly endeavor to include participation in the holistic healing ministry of the Church. Concerning this, God reveals to us in sacred scriptures some of the ethical demands of this participation. Arguably, the ethical demands of participating in the holistic healing ministry of the Church are necessarily couched in distinctly religious language, especially in sacred scriptures (Verhey 1992). Admittedly, the language in sacred scriptures emerged from historical, psychological, and social circumstances. Still, as mediators of divine revelation, sacred scriptures contain truths about the human condition that transcend time, space, and culture. Yet, paradoxically, the truths only bear fruit in particular contexts. Otherwise, they would be abstract tenets unable to speak to us. In medical practice, sacred scriptures need careful cultivation and creative tending because of the technical and moral complexities of life, sickness, and death. Accordingly, what sacred scriptures have to offer Catholic medical practitioners is a spiritual worldview that informs their decision-making and practice.

The Psalms

The diversity of sacred scriptures prevents one from using a single hermeneutical approach to understanding them (Drijvers 1965). Some are historical accounts painted with figures of speech, others are proverbs, and not a few are metaphorical narratives. Among the diverse canon of sacred scriptures come the psalms, which have a variety of their own. While based on particular experiences of specific biblical individuals, the psalms resonate across time to become meaningful for others. Perhaps the most evident example of this is Jesus Christ. Dying on the cross, he shouts the first verse of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Before death, he cries out the sixth verse of Psalm 31: “Into your hands, I commend my Spirit” (Luke 23:46). Even accounting for the prophetic aspect of the psalms in Luke 24:44, it is thought-provoking that Jesus used the psalms in those moments.

If Jesus found meaning in the psalms, his followers would do well to do the same. Hence, when faced with ethically complex situations or overwhelmed by stress from work, Catholic medical practitioners can turn to the psalms for guidance and meaningful expressions of human emotions (Vollema 2023). As it is, medical practice can lead to spiritual weariness in the face of suffering and death. As a remedy, Catholic medical practitioners can express their spirits through prayer (Hamilton 2001). In that way, the psalms “tutor [Catholic medical practitioners] in the language of prayer; they teach [them] new ways of praying and more expressive ways of articulating [their] hopes and fears, [their] joys and sorrows” (Endres 2002, 154). For example, Jacquelyn Harootunian-Cutts and Samuel Deters propose that praying the psalms can offer appropriate, structured, and ordered words to convey the lament in medical practice (Harootunian-Cutts and Deters 2022). Reflecting on the opening verses of Psalm 69, they compare the deluge of water with the deluge of work of medical practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psalm 69 begins with, “Save me, God, for the waters have reached my neck. I have sunk into the mire of the deep, where there is no foothold” (vv. 1–2). Harootunian-Cutts and Deters then compare the second half of Psalm 69, wherein the psalmist calls upon God for vindication against enemies, with a call for the medical profession to engage critically with society. Though from different socio-cultural and historical contexts, many psalms, such as Psalm 69, parallel the struggles and aspirations of medical practitioners. Furthermore, as sacred scriptures that mediate divine revelation, the psalms portray the human condition in a certain way that should guide Catholic medical practitioners. Let us consider some revelatory insights from the psalms in this regard.

Revelatory Insights

As a matter of profession, medical practitioners are responsible for diagnosing and treating physical and mental sickness from the evidence at hand, namely the symptoms. However, Catholic medical practitioners are especially responsible for ensuring that the whole person is well, which involves being aware of the metaphysical. Like the rest of sacred scriptures, the psalms present a worldview imbued with metaphysical values and deep meaning that affect our observable reality. Consider the close relationship between sin and sickness. Simeon Zahl offers a rereading of Psalms 32 and 38 in light of developments in Christian theology (Zahl 2020). According to him, there are intrinsic relationships between the body, spirit, and salvation. It is theologically untenable to advocate for sanctification without appealing to embodiment. More than most sacred scriptures, Psalms 32 and 38 present a close relationship between sin and sickness. Psalm 32:3 states, “Because I kept silent [on repentance], my bones wasted away; I groaned all day long.” Psalm 38:4, meanwhile, states, “There is no wholesomeness in my flesh because of your anger; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.” While the notion that sickness is always the result of some spiritual problem is not theologically sound (McTavish 2018, 20), the two psalms remind us that spiritual problems can contribute to sickness by inhibiting the capacity of a patient to pursue well-being. Hence, as Zahl believes, “If we want to understand how human beings actually experience illness, an exclusively medical explanation will not suffice” (Zahl 2020, 199). What is also necessary is to account for the negative impact of spiritual problems on total health. Psalms 32 and 38 show that the body and spirit must heal together.

The mind is another essential dimension of the human person that needs as much care as the body. The discourse on mental health issues has gained significant ground in recent decades. How should Catholic medical practitioners engage in it in light of their faith? Given the context of this commentary, sacred scriptures provide a theological basis for a robust psychological framework. For instance, Jennifer E. Brown and Joanna Collicutt find much wisdom in Psalms 90, 91, and 92 for coping with trauma and adversity (Brown and Collicutt 2022). For them, the three psalms constitute a threefold schema of disruption (Psalm 90), reordering (Psalm 91), and renewal (Psalm 92) in imitation of the coping process. Together, they “offer a means for voicing distress, opportunity for shared reflection on the brevity of human life, comfort and assurance of God's protection, and an affirmation of ultimate justice, making them particularly well suited for use in supporting those experiencing trauma or distress” (Brown and Collicutt 2022, 283). The language of the psalms can inspire Catholic medical practitioners with a methodology for speaking with those struggling with mental health issues, especially the traumatized.

Building on the psalms and mental health, John Garland and Rebecca W. Poe Hays (2024) take inspiration from Psalms 136 to 139 to develop a “pathway to trauma healing.” Taking asylum seekers from Central and South America as their focus group, Garland and Poe Hays creatively interpret the four psalms into a fourfold schema of trauma healing broadly composed of mantra-like focus (Psalm 136), stress response (Psalm 137), confrontative answer (Psalm 138), and safe resolution (Psalm 139). By emphasizing one psychological aspect for each psalm, Garland and Poe Hays believe each contributes toward a scriptural template for healing from trauma.

Katherine Southwood extends the discussion by citing Psalms 88 and 102 as narrativized poetic prayers that metaphorically describe the stark experience of personal suffering. Psalm 88 deals with being a social outcast, but the frustration is so much in the first half that the psalmist seemingly accuses God of unfaithfulness. Similarly, Psalm 102 also touches upon the feeling of isolation. The psalmist uses metaphor to correlate social disintegration with a deterioration in health. The nuance from Psalm 88 is that Psalm 102 asserts a hopeful confidence, likely regarding the restoration of the ancient Israelites to their homeland after their exile in Babylon. Southwood believes, “Both [psalms] emphasise the feeling that [the psalmists] are exiled from their social groups and are totally alone” (Southwood 2019, 239). In the context of sickness, whether physical or mental, Southwood recognizes the risk of one being stigmatized by other people. Therefore, she reads Psalms 88 and 102 as metaphorically communicating the social dimension of sickness that Catholic medical practice must rightly address.

One psalm that I believe is relevant to Catholic medical practice but has not received the same analytical or reflective treatment as the preceding ones is Psalm 8, which speaks of human dignity. Thus, adding to the discussion, I read Psalm 8 through the lens of medical practice. The fact is that Catholic medical practitioners encounter numerous patients afflicted with different health conditions. Symptoms and sickness may be similar in classification and strain, but the human person is unrepeatable. It is tempting to overlook the uniqueness of someone in the quest to diagnose, especially when there is a long queue of patients. Names can become numbers. Nonetheless, Psalm 8 upholds the human dignity of the human person amid the grandeur of creation. Despite using gendered language, it affirms the human dignity of all, even the most vulnerable, by stating, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor” (vv. 5–6). Against depersonalization in medical practice, Psalm 8 could help Catholic medical practitioners to appreciate the uniqueness and human dignity of each patient.

Suggestions

In this commentary, I sought to advance that the psalms help contextualize Catholic medical practice in the milieu of divine revelation. They challenge Catholic medical practitioners to be open to the saving power of God (Arriola 2017). The revelatory insights above are not exhaustive. They broadly elucidate what the psalms have to offer Catholic medical practice. In turn, I proffer three suggestions for Catholic medical practitioners who want to draw further insights from the psalms. First, I encourage them to be familiar with the historical contexts of the psalms they read and pray. Knowing their historical contexts helps Catholic medical practitioners to relate the psalms to a specific medical situation in a prudent manner. Second, I also encourage Catholic medical practitioners to use versions of the Bible that they feel connected with and that the Catholic magisterium has approved. Third, I recommend that Catholic medical practitioners regularly read, pray, and discuss the psalms together, as communal worship was an integral setting in which the psalmists intended to have their psalms prayed. The hospital chaplain or someone in a similar capacity can facilitate group discussions. Overall, the sixtieth anniversary of DV is a timely opportunity to reflect on the divine revelation that makes Catholic medical practice distinctly Catholic.