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.

All the Days of Our Lives--Jan. 10, 2013


[From Archives--Jan. 10, 2009]
You have held out your hands to us, a rebellious people;
all day long you have held them out.  We ignore you; we
walk in a way that is not good; we follow our own devices.

Awaken us, and strengthen what remains, even if it is
at the point of death.  Help us gather up the fragments
of the good gifts that you have bestowed upon us, and
surprise us when we see how many baskets are filled.

Teach us to focus on the one essential we must seek after:
to live all the days of our lives in your presence, while we
behold your beauty and inquire of your will for our lives.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 47; 149; 27; 114
Isa. 65:1-9
Rev. 3:1-6
John 6:1-14

Selected Verses

Ps. 27:4
One thing I asked of the LORD,
            that I will seek after;
to live in the house of the LORD
            all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD,
            and to inquire in his temple.

Isa. 65:2
I held out my hands all day long
            to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
            following their own devices…

Rev. 3:2
“…Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.  …  ” [Words quoted from The Son of God to the angel of the church in Sardis]

John 6:12-13
When [the people in the crowd of 5000] were satisfied, [Jesus] told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”  So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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