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.

Make Steadfast--June 27, 2022

[From June 28, 2004 archive]

 

Make steadfast our hearts, O God, 

as your love is steadfast.  

Bar us from finding excuses for our sin; 

keep us steadfast.  

 

When people summon us to questionable acts, 

help us do only what is consistent with your will.  

Forfend that we should profane with dishonesty 

what you have given us as sacred.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 57; 145; 85; 47

Numb. 22:1-21

Rom. 6:12-23

Matt. 21:12-22

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 57:7

My heart is steadfast, O God, 

            my heart is steadfast.

 

Numb. 22:20

That night God came to Balaam and said to him, “If the men have come to summon you, get up and go with them; but do only what I tell you to do.”

 

Rom. 6:15

What then?  Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  By no means!

 

Matt. 21:

[Jesus] said to [the sellers and buyers in the temple], “It is written, 

            ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’;

                        but you are making it a den of robbers.”


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

3 comments:

  1. Mea SententiaJune 27, 2022 at 8:40 PM

    Forfend 🙂
    The archive only goes back to Dec 2004. Might this be a journal?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousJune 27, 2022 at 11:29 PM

      Thank you for pointing this out, Chris. To clarify, I have always kept a Word version of my posts, and that is what I consult instead of using the archives. My Word version covers much more of 2004 than just December, so that is the source I have been using. Now that I know, I will refer to 2004 posts prior to December as from my journal. (I am guessing that you were curious to know whether I was using "forfend" back in 2004. Confession--I had used "forbid" but I changed it for your benefit. Caught in the act! Elmer

      Delete
  2. Mea SententiaJune 28, 2022 at 7:29 PM

    Many thanks for thinking of me. Forfend goes back to Middle English, so our ancestors have used it for a long time.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)