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.


Have You Forsaken Her?--Feb. 24, 2012



I do not have the sense that you have forsaken me
so much as that you have forsaken one I love.

Why are you so far from helping her,
from the words of her groaning?

It is wrong to worry about her;
but God, it is hard not to do so.

Help me trust in you and be thankful
as I bring before you my requests for her.

Give me a new heart, a new spirit in this Lenten
season, and sanctify me that I may know your truth.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 22; 148; 105; 130
Ezk. 18:1-4, 25-32
Phil. 4:1-9
John 17:9-19

Selected Verses
Ps. 22:1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
      Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

Ezk. 18:31a
Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!

Phil. 4:6
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

2 comments:

  1. ChrisFebruary 24, 2012 at 8:01 PM

    It's not wrong to worry, I believe. Worry flows out of love. But underneath is trust. The Psalms have taught me that my emotions matter to God and can become part of my prayer, including anxiety, fear or sadness. Underneath is trust, even in times when I feel God has forsaken. Peace to you.

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  2. Elmer E. EwingFebruary 27, 2012 at 9:49 PM

    Thank you for the reassurance, Chris. I think we are in close agreement about worry, and how to interpret Paul's statement:

    "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

    As you suggest, I believe the Psalms are very helpful here. Clearly, the prayers of the psalmists include their emotions--anger, remorse, vindictiveness, plus the three emotions you mention and many others. As we include our emotions in our prayers God helps us sort them out and understand them more from God's point of view. And yes, emphatically, underneath it all must be trust. It takes a certain amount of trust to express the emotion to God; and when we honestly have expressed it, I believe any negative aspects of the emotion diminish and our level of trust increases. In the specific case of worry (and I am by nature a champion worrier), once I have stated my worries in prayer, I am with Paul more able to replace them with "prayer and supplication and thanksgiving," trusting God to work through me to the extent that I am involved in solving what worries me, and to let God take care of what remains. Then with increasing trust in God, worry (in the sense of stewing over what might happen in a future over which I have no control) tends to be replaced with concern plus a willingness to let God handle what I cannot do anything about. Thank you for helping me think this through.

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