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.

Distress Call--March 2, 2011


God, you heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.
I have suffered distress, but nothing compared to Paul’s—
no lashings or beatings, no stoning or shipwreck, never adrift.

O merciful God, help me view my suffering as a call to return
to you and heed you; for you will not abandon or destroy me.
Guide me through today’s distress, leaving tomorrow’s to you.


Lectionary Readings
Ps. 96; 147:1-11; 132; 134
Deut. 4:25-31
2 Cor. 11:21b-33
Matt. 6:24-34

Selected Verses
Ps. 147:3
[The LORD] heals the brokenhearted,
      and binds up their wounds.

Deut. 4:30-31
In your distress, when all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will return to the LORD your God and heed him. Because the Lord your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.

2 Cor. 11:24-25
Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea…

Matt. 6:34
“…So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. …” [Jesus to the crowds]
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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