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.

The Arrow Lies Before Us--July 18, 2013


[From July 14, 2011 Archive]

Lord Jesus, you are grieved at our hardness of hearts.
You make straight paths for us; we make them crooked.
You are our Lord, and we have no good apart from you.
Apart from you, the arrow of alienation lies before us.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 97; 147:12-20; 16; 62
1 Sam. 20:24-42
Acts 13:1-12
Mark 2:23-3:6

Selected Verses

Ps. 16:2
I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
          I have no good apart from you.”

1 Sam. 20:37
When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is the arrow not beyond you?”  [The signal that David must flee]

Acts 13:9-10
But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at [the magician Elymas] and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?  … ”

Mark 3:4-5
Then [Jesus] said to [the Pharisees], “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?”  But they were silent.  He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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