August 01, 2005

I. Readings
Psalms 9, 62, 73
2 Samuel 7:1-17
Acts 18:1-11
Mark 8:11-21

II. Selections
Ps. 62:3
How long will you assail a person,
will you batter your victim, all of you,
as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

2 Samuel 7:12
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

Acts 18:1-2
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them ...

Mark 8:14
Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.

III. Meditation: Assailed and battered
Whether by our own doing or from the hands of others, sometimes we feel assailed and battered, about to fall like a leaning wall or a tottering fence. By Mark's account, the disciples were in near constant free-fall, always forgetting or misunderstanding. Paul had to bounce from city to city, on the lookout for ears that would hear him. King David, however, is both denied and affirmed.