Our Cry?--Oct. 5, 2010

I. Readings
Psalms 42, 146, 102, 133
Hosea 7:8-16
Acts 23:12-24
Luke 7:1-17

II. Selections
Psalm 42:1-2a
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
      so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
      for the living God.

Hosea 7:14
They do not cry to me from the heart,
      but they wail upon their beds;
they gash themselves for grain and wine;
      they rebel against me.

Acts 23:12
In the morning the Jews joined in a conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

Luke 7:2
A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death.

III. Meditation

The passion of the conspirators was to kill Paul;
they vowed to forgo food and drink until they had done it.

The centurion valued the life of his slave sufficiently to ask
Jesus to heal him (though apparently not enough to free him).

The desire of the psalmist was only for you—
with a deep thirst he thirsted for your presence.

May our cry to you be from the heart, like the psalmist’s—
not a wail of despair as we continue to rebel against you.