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.

To Lie Down and Sleep in Peace--Sept. 19, 2018

To Lie Down and Sleep in Peace

What will help me lie down and sleep in peace?
What can make me lie down in safety?
It is the knowledge that you, O God,
can do all things, no purpose of yours
can be thwarted.  It is your assurance that
if I follow Jesus, you and he will be with me,
and that there is no better way than to be your servant.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 15; 147:1-11; 48; 4
Job 42:1-17
Acts 16:16-24
John 12:20-26

Selected Verses
Ps. 4:8
I will both lie down and sleep in peace;
          for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety.

Job 42:1-2
Then Job answered the LORD: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  …”

Acts 16:16-17
One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.  While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation." 

John 12:20-26
“…Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.  Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.  …”  [Jesus to Philip and Andrew]

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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