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.

Not Swayed by What People Say--Jan. 19, 2021


O Holy God, teach me your way, 

that I may walk in your truth,

with an undivided heart

to revere your name.

 

Put away my former life;

renew the spirit of my mind.

May I not be taken in by fraud,

swayed by what people are saying.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 123; 146; 30; 86

Isa. 44:9-20

Eph. 4:17-32

Mark 3:19b-35

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 86:11

Teach me your way, O LORD,
          that I may walk in your truth;
          give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

 

Isa. 44:20

[The idol-making carpenter] feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”

 

Eph. 4:22-23

You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds…

 

Mark 3:19b-35

When [Jesus’] family heard [how the crowds were behaving], they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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