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.


Humble Us--May 30, 2011


You are good to all, O God;
your compassion is over all you have made.
Humble us, that we may be raised up.

Remind us, our wealth is no cause for boasting;
though we gain the whole world, though we feast
on rich food, without your word our hunger remains;
like a flower of the field we and our riches will disappear.


Lectionary Readings
Ps. 97; 145; 124; 115
Deut. 8:1-10
James 1:1-15
Luke 9:18-27

Selected Verses
Ps. 145:9
The LORD is good to all,
      and his compassion is over all that he has made.

Deut. 8:3
[The LORD your God] humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

James 1:9-10
Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field.

Luke 9:25
“What does it profit [those who want to save their lives] if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? …” [Jesus to his disciples]
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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