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.

Is it Well with My Child?--Aug. 19, 2015


Is it well with my son Absalom? asked David.
There could be no gladness in his heart
when he learned that it was not.
The wellness of our children
can never be assured--
not by hundreds of soldiers
nor armaments nor swift passage,
not by a balanced diet of nutritious food.
True security is in this: you are God of the living.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 15; 147:1-11; 48; 4
2 Sam. 18:19-33
Acts 23:23-35
Mark 12:13-27

Selected Verses
Ps. 4:7
 You have put gladness in my heart
          more than when their grain and wine abound.

2 Sam. 18:29a
The king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” 

Acts 23:23-24
Then [the tribune] summoned two of the centurions and said, “Get ready to leave by nine o’clock tonight for Caesarea with two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen.  Also provide mounts for Paul to ride, and take him safely to Felix the governor.” 

Mark 12:26-27
"…And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?  He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”  [Jesus to the Sadducees]

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