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.


What Do We Know?--July 17, 2011

What do we know about you, God?
Much we do not know,
but enough we know.

Enough to realize we fall far short
of what you command, and that
you are gracious and good.

What do we know about ourselves?
Much we think we know, but do not.
Who can detect their hidden faults?

In your wisdom, O God,
do not let us shut ourselves in
with gates and bars.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 19; 150; 81; 113
1 Sam. 23:7-18
Rom. 11:33-12:2
Matt. 25:14-30

Selected Verses
Ps. 19:12
But who can detect their errors?
      Clear me from hidden faults.

1 Sam. 23:7
Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand; for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.”

Rom. 11:33
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Matt. 25:26
“…But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? …’”
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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