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.

To Fear No Evil--April 23, 2022

[From April 18, 2020 archive]

 

O Living God, Our Shepherd, 

 

we, and indeed our whole world, 

walk through a dark valley, 

but we need fear no evil, 

for you are with us.

 

You are with us to comfort us

and with us to guide us, 

even if it seems like

a roundabout way. 

 

Prepare us with the Holy Spirit,

that always on our journey

we may walk with you.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 92; 149; 23; 114

Exod. 13:17-14:4

2 Cor. 4:16-5:10

Mark 12:18-27

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 23:4

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
          I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
          your rod and your staff —
          they comfort me.

 

Exod. 13:18a

So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. 

 

2 Cor. 5:5

He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

 

Mark 12:27

“…He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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