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.

November 17, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 56, 111, 118
Nehemiah 13:4-22
Revelation 20:1-6
Matthew 16:21-28

II. Selections
Psalm 56:13
For you have delivered my soul from death,
and my feet from falling,
so that I may walk before God
in the light of life.

Nehemiah 13:8
And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the room.

Revelation 20:2
[ The angel] seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years ...

Matthew 16:23
But [ Jesus] turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

III. Meditation: Our stumbling block

Remove from us our stumbling block,
that sets our mind on human things,
not on divine things.

Deliver our soul from death
and our feet from falling,
so that we may walk before you
in the light of life.

Throw out of our lives
all the furniture of evil;
seize and bind the ancient serpent.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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