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.

June 02, 2010


We Know and Do Not Know

I. Readings
Psalms 65, 147:1-11, 125, 91
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
Galatians 2:11-21
Matthew 14:1-12

II. Selections
Psalm 65:1-2
Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion;
      and to you shall vows be performed, O you who answer prayer!
      To you all flesh shall come.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Galatians 2:20b
And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Matthew 14:9-10
The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; he sent and had John beheaded in the prison.

III. Meditation

We know that you have made everything suitable for its time,
and we have a sense of past and future, but we cannot begin
to know all that you have done or what you will bring to be.

Cannot know, and do not need to know. We do know that all
flesh shall come to you, and that you answer prayers. We live
in the flesh by faith in Jesus, who loved and gave himself for us.

Help us praise your name and perform vows we make to you;
but preserve us from sin like that of Herod’s, who to save face
before his guests honored his own rash and boastful oath. Thus
Herod dishonored the loyalty he owed to you and to his subjects.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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