September 5 (Fifteenth after Pentecost) – Psalm 139:1-6
Surely I am known by you, Lord, just as the psalmist was, for you are all-knowing, My awareness comes from the experience of being searched by you all along the path of life. I can attest to the psalmist’s witness that no matter where I am, in whatever place or mood, you are there as well.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too, even if in some moments disturbing. People often wonder why you are so persistent. They would rather not have you observing their spirit and life at every turn in the road. But if it were not for you and your persistence in pursuing us, where would we be today?
What moves me most, and leaves me most grateful, is your Spirit—who is among us in love—if judging of necessity, only to redeem, to bring us back to ourselves and to you. Thank you for that unconditional love, and for the patience and good will with which you exercise it in all of life. Amen.
September 12 (Sixteenth after Pentecost) – Psalm 14
Save us, Lord, save us, for left to ourselves in the midst of life as we know it, we often feel helpless. Though our experience is hardly as difficult as the psalmist’s was in Old Testament times, we often feel in our bones that it may well become so.
Enmity toward Christians seems on the rise. And increasing numbers of others, though not our enemies, look on us as irrelevant. Brazen evil and laissez faire attitudes threaten on every hand to unnerve us, and corruption abounds.
Strengthen our faith in you, Lord, and support us with your Spirit and presence. Be with the company of the righteous. Help us invade the darkness surrounding with the light of your word and Spirit. Restore the fortunes of your people. Then with Jacob we will be glad, and with Israel rejoice! Amen.
September 19 (Seventeenth after Pentecost) – Psalm 79:1-9
One can only imagine, Lord, how your people of old must have felt when they saw the defiling of your holy temple and the destruction of Jerusalem. The bodies of your servants were given to the birds of the air and the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth. Their blood was poured out like water all around your holy city. And there was no one to even bury them.
Being human, they responded in anger, no doubt as we do even today, calling on you to pour out your anger on all who thus lay waster your habitations.
But they also recognized that in some ways what they saw happening was what you promised would happen if they wandered from your way, and they had at least the grace to ask you not to remember their iniquity or that of their ancestors.
May we pray the same, Lord, in our time and place—humbly asking you for deliverance not because we deserve it but simply in order to be true to your name and eternal purpose. Amen.
September 26 (Eighteenth after Pentecost) – Psalm 91:1-6
What comfort, Lord, is given us in this psalm. And what a privilege it has been in a lifetime of ministry to offer that comfort to so many in distress. Your Word goes out with power to bring peace where there is no peace, and healing to spirit and mind even when bodies are broken and life seems to be wasting away. We have seen and experienced it time and again.
We stand in awe of the power of your word and the promises you make to those who believe. You are indeed our refuge and fortress. You will, you say—and you do—deliver us from the snare of the fowler and the deadly pestilence. You also will—and you do—cover us with your pinions. We know, because under your wings we have found refuge.
Continue to teach us, Lord, that those who believe in you have nothing to fear. And remind us how important it is, with the psalmist, to “live in the shelter of the Most High,” and “abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” Amen.
