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.

I Have No Reason to Boast--Aug. 7, 2016

[From Aug. 10, 2014 archive] 

O God, you have searched me and known me.
You know that I love praise from others,
and that I try to make them aware of
my virtues without revealing my
weaknesses or appearing to boast.
You well know how I try to be captain
of my ship, then come running back to you
when I am in trouble and my boat is in
danger of sinking.  Forgive me--
I have no reason to boast.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 103; 150; 117; 139
Judg. 11:1-11, 29-40
2 Cor. 11:21b-31
Mark 4:35-41

Selected Verses
Ps. 139:1
O LORD, you have searched me and known me.

Judg. 11:7
But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Are you not the very ones who rejected me and drove me out of my father's house?  So why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?"

2 Cor. 11:30
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Mark 4:38
But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and [the disciples] woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 

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