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 19, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 32, 130, 139
Esther 1:1-4, 10-19
Acts 17:1-15
John 12:36b-43

II. Selections
Psalm 32:7
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
Selah

Esther 1:12
But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command conveyed by the eunuchs. At this the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him.

Acts 17:2-3
And Paul went in [ the synagogue in Thessalonica], as was his custom, and on three sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you."

John 12:43
...for [ the authorities who feared the Pharisees] loved human glory more than the glory that comes from you.


III. Meditation: Our deliverer

O God, you have hidden us from danger; you have preserved us from trouble.
Deliver us from making unjust demands of those we regard as our inferiors,
and deliver us from anger that burns within us when they do not comply.
Rather may we model ourselves on Jesus; he did not love human glory
more than the glory that comes from you, but he endured suffering-
even suffering unto death. Through him we have been delivered,
and in his name we pray.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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