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.

The Plight of Fugitives--August 09, 2010


I. Readings
Psalms 5, 145, 82, 29
Judges 12:1-7
Acts 5:12-26
John 3:1-21

II. Selections
Psalm 82:1-4
God has taken his place in the divine council;
      in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly
      and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
      maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
      deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

Judges 12:4
Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives from Ephraim, you Gileadites—in the heart of Ephraim and Manasseh.”

Acts 5:17-18
Then the high priest took action, he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.

John 3:21
But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

III. Meditation

The world is filled with fugitives who have been unjustly
accused, or whose plight has been ignored, by the wicked.
The wicked act from jealousy and abuse the judicial system.

Lord, are we among the wicked? Are we just in our judgments,
and is our justice tempered with mercy for the lowly and destitute?
Are we willing to struggle for the rights of the weak and the needy?

Shine your light upon us, Jesus, and draw us to you,
that we may do what is true and act with compassion.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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