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.

Before God, We Stand or Fall--Feb. 10, 2018


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Jacob saw an attractive woman,
one who was rich in sheep,
and he was impressed.

Gracious God, if you take pleasure in your people,
and you choose to adorn the humble with victory,
who am I to pass judgment on any of them?
I want to seek my own glory, and put
others down to make me tall,
but I, like them, must
stand before you.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 104; 149; 138; 98
Gen. 29:1-20
Rom. 14:1-23
John 8:47-59

Selected Verses
Ps. 149:4
 For the LORD takes pleasure in his people;
          he adorns the humble with victory. 

Gen. 29:10
Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother's brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother's brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of his mother's brother Laban.

Rom. 14:4
Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another?  It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

John 8:50
"…Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge.  …"  [Jesus to the Pharisees]

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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