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.

Why We Sing for Joy--May 6, 2017


Every day brings new reasons to sing for joy--
a friend who survives potential tragedy,
visitors arrive to relate good news,
the beauty of your creation--
but today I rejoice
because you sent Jesus,
and that he came not to call
the righteous, but sinners
to repentance, for I am
one of them.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 92; 149; 23; 114
Dan. 6:16-28
3 John 1-15
Luke 5:27-39  

Selected Verses
Ps. 92:4
For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work;
          at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

Dan. 6:23
Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. 

3 John 3
I was overjoyed when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth. 

Luke 5:31
Jesus answered [the complaints of the scribes and Pharisees], "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance."

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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