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.

September 09, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 103, 117, 139
1 Kings 12:21-33
Acts 4:18-31
John 10:31-42

II. Selections
Psalm 117:1
Praise the LORD, all you nations!
Extol him, all you peoples!

1 Kings 12:28c
" ...Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." [ King Jeroboam]

Acts 4: 31
When [ Peter, John, and their friends] had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

John 10:38
" ...But if I do [ the works of my Father], even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

III. Meditation: Works

The psalmist calls all nations
to praise you and extol you,
and Jesus said to believe in
him because he did your works,

but we tend to focus more
on our own works than on yours,
and we are more apt to praise
the works of our hands than to
praise the One who made us.

Shake us out of our comfortable
ways; and fill us with your Spirit,
that with boldness we may speak
your word and do your works.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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