Psalm 55:2-12 - The Psalm for Would Be Hermits

Folks, I've been told by very knowledgeable people that a vocation to the solitary life must be defined against very clear lines or may end in disaster. They tell me that there are two kinds of people who are called to live as hermits, those who love the world but leave it for its sake, and those who hate the world and flee from it out of hatred. If you belong to the first, you have a vocation to the solitary life but if you belong to the second, you just want to be left alone.

I think, however, that contempt for the world and its ways may be a valid entrance into the eremitic, solitary life. I believe that Psalm 55:2-12 provides the exact mental and spiritual framework into which the idea of living a life of solitary prayer and detachment may first take flight:

O God, listen to my prayer,
do not hide from my pleading,
attend to me and reply;
with my cares, I cannot rest.

I tremble at the shouts of the foe,
at the cries of the wicked;
for they bring down evil upon me.
They assail me with fury.

My heart is stricken within me,
death's terror is on me,
trembling and fear fall upon me
and horror overwhelms me.

O that I had wings like a dove
to fly away and be at rest.
So I would escape far away
and take refuge in the desert.

I would hasten to find a shelter
from the raging wind,
from the destructive storm, O Lord,
and from their plotting tongues.

For I can see nothing
but violence and strife in the city.
Night and day they patrol
high on the city walls.

It is full of wickedness and evil;
it is full of sin.
Its streets are never free
from tyranny and deceit.

Who from amongst us, desiring for a more perfect life of prayer and sacrifice away from "the violence and the strife in the city" have not felt this way at one time or another?

The Psalmist reassures us that it's "OK" to feel this way, that it is all right to pine for the one who is Good, and Beautiful; Perfect, True, and Love and to want to leave everything behind in the quest for Him. God will do the rest in the hermit's soul. He will purify it from all stain, sin, and selfishness, no matter what was the original reason from fleeing to the desert. We don't perfect our quest, He does.