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.

If We Are Sighing--Feb. 24, 2021


Our Living God, 

if we come to you sighing,

afraid you will be too angry

to give ear to our words,

 

remind us — it is we

who turn away from you.

How can it be that we fail

to understand this?

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 5; 147:1-11; 27; 51

Deut. 9:13-21

Heb. 3:12-19

John 2:23-3:15

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 5:1

Give ear to my words, O LORD;
          give heed to my sighing.

 

Deut. 9:19

For I was afraid that the anger that the LORD bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you.  But the LORD listened to me that time also.

 

Heb. 3:12

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

 

John 3:9

Nicodemus said to [Jesus], “How can these things be?”  Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?  …”


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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