I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

If We Ask for Wisdom and Insight--May 19, 2016


I bless your name, Lord of heaven and earth;
you give me counsel, and in the night
my heart instructs me.
And this is the boldness
we have in Christ, that if we ask
anything according to your will, you hear us.

(Yet if we ask for wisdom and insight,
we may find you have hidden these
things from the wise and intelligent
and revealed them only to infants.)

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 97; 147:12-20; 16; 62
Prov. 7:1-27
1 John 5:13-21
Matt. 11:25-30
       
Selected Verses
Ps. 16:7
 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
          in the night also my heart instructs me. 

Prov. 7:4
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
            and call insight your intimate friend…

1 John 5:14
And this is the boldness we have in [the Son of God], that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Matt. 11:25
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants…”
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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