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 Trust in God--March 20, 2017


O God,
you justify
 the ungodly,
if we trust in you.
And if we trust in you,
truly we will amend our ways
and our doings--act justly with one another,
will not oppress the alien, orphan, or widow
(who nightly flood the bed with tears),
will not shed innocent blood,
will seek your glory,
not our own.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 119:73-80; 145; 121; 6
Jer. 7:1-15
Rom. 4:1-12
John 7:14-36

Selected Verses
Ps. 6:6
 I am weary with my moaning;
          every night I flood my bed with tears;
          I drench my couch with my weeping. 

Jer. 7:5-7a
For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place…  [The LORD, speaking through Jeremiah, to the people of Judah]

Rom. 4:5
But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 

John 7:18
"…Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.  …"  [Jesus to his critics in the temple]

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