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 25, 2010


Your Grace Abounds

I. Readings
Psalms 130, 148, 32, 139
Numbers 20:1-13
Romans 5:12-21
Matthew 20:29-34

II. Selections
Psalm 32:3
While I kept silence, my body wasted away
      through my groaning all day long.

Numbers 20:3
The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had died when our kindred died before the LORD! … ”

Romans 5:15
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.

Matthew 20:31
The crowd sternly ordered [the two blind men] to be quiet; but they shouted even more loudly, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

III. Meditation

Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us.
In silence we groan all day and waste away;
and when we speak, we end up quarreling.

But your free gift is not like our trespasses;
surely your grace abounds for us.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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