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.

When We Look back in Sorrow, God--Sept. 6, 2016


When times are difficult or dangerous,
we leave the place we liked to be,
seeking out a place of safety.
Arriving there we may look
back in sorrow that we had to go,
our soul cast down within us,
longing for the days, God,
when you were with us.
In such a time remind us,
Lord, that you are with us still.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 42; 146; 102; 133
Job 29:1-20
Acts 14:1-18
John 10:31-42
           
Selected Verses
Ps. 42:5b-c
My soul is cast down within me;
          therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
          from Mount Mizar. 

Job 29:1-4
Job again took up his discourse and said:  "Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me; when his lamp shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness; when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent…"

Acts 14:5-6
And when an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, the apostles learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country…

John 10:39-40
Then they tried to arrest [Jesus] again, but he escaped from their hands.  He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. 

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