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.

Power Abused--Aug. 5, 2021

[From Aug. 9, 2007 archive]

 

Evil can be overpowering, especially to the powerful.
Even the virtuous King David commanded evil deeds.

 

Sadly, suffering brought on by evil power falls heavily
upon the innocent--Uriah, Bathsheba, John the Baptist.

 

You have given us power, O God; forbid that we use it
to promote bloodshed and evil, lest we be swept away.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 116; 147:12-20; 26; 130

2 Sam. 11:1-27

Acts 19:11-20

Mark 9:2-13

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 26:9

Do not sweep me away with sinners, 
          nor my life with the bloodthirsty…

 

2 Sam. 11:25

David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another; press your attack on the city, and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”

 

Acts 19:16

Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on [the itinerant exorcists], mastered them all, and so overpowered them that they fled out of the house naked and wounded.

 

Mark 9:13

“…But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him.”  [Jesus, to Peter, James, and John]


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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