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 22, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 19, 81, 113
1 Samuel 23:7-18
Romans 11:33-12:2
Matthew 25:14-30

II. Selections
Psalm 113:4
The LORD is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens.

1 Samuel 23:13a
Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, set out and left Keilah; they wandered wherever they could go.

Romans 11:33
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Matthew 25:26
" ...But his master replied, 'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? ... '"

III. Meditation: How inscrutable your ways

O, the depth of your riches
and wisdom and knowledge.
How inscrutable your ways,
unsearchable your judgments.

You are high above all nations;
your glory is above the heavens.
You reap where you did not sow,
gather where you did not scatter.

As for us, we are wicked and lazy.
We wander in the wilderness,
going wherever we can go.
Have mercy on our souls.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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