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.

Draw Me Near--Nov. 5, 2020

 

May I listen to you, O God,

and not to demonic spirits.

 

Draw me near, let my trust be in you; 

apart from you, I have no good.

 

Let me be like a bird that nests 

in a tree of your kingdom.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 97; 147:12-20; 16; 62

Zeph. 3:1-7

Rev. 16:12-21

Luke 13:18-30

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 16:2

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

 

Zeph. 3:2

[The oppressing city] has listened to no voice;
     it has accepted no correction.
It has not trusted in the LORD;
     it has not drawn near to its God.

 

Rev. 16:14

These are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.

 

Luke 13:18-19

[Jesus] said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like?  And to what should I compare it?  It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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