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.

Though I Shall Not Want--May 4, 2019


Loving God, the words are familiar, very familiar:
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
I have many wants, yet do not suffer want, but in the
world one of four children under five suffers.
Though we do not live by bread alone, we need food,
and they have too little.  One in four of them
is so malnourished as to be stunted--physically
and cognitively--a cruel life sentence.

Am I waiting for you to send an angel to deliver
these little ones?  How does your love abide
in me, if I see their suffering, and I do not help them?
What good are word and speech without action?

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 92; 149; 23; 114
Dan. 3:19-30
1 John 3:11-18
Luke 4:1-13

Selected Verses
Ps. 23:1
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 

Dan. 3:28a
Nebuchadnezzar said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him.  …"

1 John 3:17-18
How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?  Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

Luke 4:4
Jesus answered [the devil], "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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