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.

March 12, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 6, 119:73-80, 121
Jeremiah 7:1-15
Romans 4:1-12
John 7:14-36

II. Selections
Psalm 119:74
Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice,
because I have hoped in your word.

Jeremiah 7:9-10
Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are safe!" -only to go on doing all these abominations?

Romans 4:5
But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

John 7:36
" ...What does he mean by saying, 'You will search for me and you will not find me' and 'Where I am, you cannot come'?" [ The Pharisees, speaking of Jesus]

III. Meditation: We hope in your word.

We who have worshiped false gods,
who have broken your commandments,
dare not pronounce ourselves safe merely
by coming to stand before you in worship,
if we then continue all the same abominations.

Our hope is in your word, not in our works.
We trust in you because you justify the ungodly.
Not by searching for you shall we find you;
we cannot come to you, unless you come to us.
Come, then, to us, that we may amend our ways.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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