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.

God, Our Strength and Saving Refuge--June 4, 2013


 O God, the strength and saving refuge of your people,
forbid we should act only according to our own desires.

Remind us that even if we are poor and have nothing,
in you we possess everything;

that even if we seem to have every cause for sorrow,
we always can rejoice in you.

May we never forget to return to you
and give you praise.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 54; 146; 28; 99
Deut. 12:1-12
2 Cor. 6:3-7:1
Luke 17:11-19

Selected Verses

Ps. 28:8
 The LORD is the strength of his people;
          he is the saving refuge of his anointed.

Deut. 12:8
You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires…  [Moses speaking for the LORD to his people]

2 Cor. 6:8b, 10
We are treated as impostors, and yet are true… as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Luke 17:17-18
Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean?  But the other nine, where are they?  Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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