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.

July 10, 2006

Readings
Psalms 9, 62, 73
Numbers 32:1-6, 16-27
Romans 8:26-30
Matthew 23:1-12

Selections
Psalm 9:13c
...you are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death...

Numbers 32:24
"...Build towns for your little ones, and folds for your flocks; but do what you have promised." [ Moses to the Gadites and Reubenites]

Romans 8:26
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

Matthew 23:3
"...therefore, do whatever [ the scribes and Pharisees] teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach..."

Meditation: In our weakness

Come to us, Holy Spirit,
in our weakness;
come to us who do not know
how to pray as we ought;
come to us and intercede
with sighs too deep for words.

O God, who lifts us up
from the gates of death,
show us what promises to make;
and strengthen us to keep our promises.
May what we teach be according to your word;
may what we do be according to what we teach.

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