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.

Woe and Joy--Nov. 2, 2021

[From Nov. 1, 2011 archive, 

adapted from my journal, Nov. 6, 2001]

 

Woe is in our past,

woe will come in our future.

 

But we will not live in lament over the one,

nor in fear over the other,

 

for you have commanded your steadfast love 

by day, and your song is with us at night.

 

You have made us rejoice with great joy;

we will keep our joys like treasures,

 

and bring them out in the future

when we need them.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 42; 146; 102; 133

Neh. 12:27-31a, 42b-47

Rev. 11:1-19

Matt. 13:44-52

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 42:8

By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, 
          and at night his song is with me, 
          a prayer to the God of my life.

 

Neh. 12:43a

[The people] offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy…

 

Rev.11:14 

The second woe has passed.  The third woe is coming very soon.

 

Matt. 13:52

And [Jesus] said to [his disciples], “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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