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 18, 2010

The Watercourses of the Negeb

I. Readings
Psalms 27, 147:12-20, 126, 102
Exodus 1:6-22
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
Mark 8:27-9:1

II. Selections
Psalm 126:4
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.

Exodus 1:17
But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.

1 Corinthians 12:13
For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free— and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Mark 8:32
[Jesus] said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

III. Meditation

The Hebrew midwives feared you more than they
did Pharaoh, and they did not kill the baby boys.
We are more like Peter, afraid to hear what you say.

Make us drink of your one Spirit, that as one body
we may hear and follow you. Then our fortunes
will be restored like the watercourses in the Negeb.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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