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.

Only Your Spirit--June 2, 2022

[From May 24, 2012 archive;

adapted from my journal of June 8, 2000]

 

I cannot put away from me all bitterness and wrath

and anger and wrangling and slander and malice—

not by my own might or power, I cannot.

 

Only your Spirit working within me could do this.

Summon your might, show your strength, O God,

as you have shown it so often before.

 

Make me kind and tenderhearted, forgiving others

as you have forgiven me.  In response, let me take

heart, putting away bitterness and wrath.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 47; 147:12-20; 68; 113

Zech. 4:1-14

Eph. 4:17-32

Matt. 9:1-18

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 68:28

Summon your might, O God; 
          show your strength, O God, as you have done for us before.

 

Zech. 4:6

‘…[The angel] said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”  …’

 

Eph. 4:32

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

 

Matt. 9:2

And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed.  When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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