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.

August 23, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 4, 15, 48
Judges 18:16-31
Acts 8:14-25
John 6:1-15

II. Selections
Psalm 48:3
Within [ Mount Zion's] citadels God
has shown himself a sure defense.

Judges 18:31
So [ the Danites] maintained as their own Micah's idol that he had made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.

Acts 8:23
" ...For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness." [ Peter to Simon the magician]

John 6:12
When the [ 5000 people] were satisfied, [ Jesus] told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost."

III. Meditation: A sure defense

You have shown yourself to be a sure defense from evil,
and a sure defense from evil is what we sorely need.

In the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness,
we cling to idols, even idols gained by force of arms.

You did not want the fragments from feeding the 5000 to be lost;
save us, then, from the idols we make so central to our way of life.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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