Prayers on Gospel Texts - May, 2011

Over a period of three years now, since April of 2008, this prayer section on our website has focused on the psalm designated for each Sunday in the Church Year. Commencing with Lent in March, 2011 we began using the gospel text for each week instead. Visitors will be helped by reading through the text as listed in each case before engaging the prayer. We hope in this way to both stimulate thought on textual themes and encourage devotional engagement week by week in each text's implications for life as we know it today.

May 1 (Second of Easter) - John 20:19-31

What a difference your presence makes in our lives, Dear God! We can relate to the despair of the disciples the evening of your resurrection, gathered in a house whose doors had been closed "for fear of the Jews.' How many doors are there behind which we have hidden when we felt threatened along life's way? And how many times have you not then come among us to minister peace and hope as our Sovereign Lord? Remind me today and throughout this week that whenever and wherever you thus minister to us there follows a call for us to minister in your name to others. "As the Father has sent me," you declare, "so send I you." Even, if like Thomas, we demur--not having been where others were when you came--you come again to reveal who you are and charge us once again, "Do not doubt, but believe." Lord, in your mercy, help us not only to respond in faith but to heed your call and share in your mission. Amen.

May 8 (Third of Easter) - Luke 24:13-35

How is it, Lord, that you always find us wherever we are? And why is it that you are forever seeking us out, even when we are not seeking you? The two on Emmaus Road were just as much in despair at the disciples were in that house whose doors were closed "for fear of the Jews."

These were traveling away from Jerusalem, despairing because you were the one for whom they had hoped, and unaware of your resurrection they felt abandoned and fearful themselves. So often do we, Lord, even knowing that you are risen from the dead. But you keep coming, among them and among us, even when at first we do not recognize that it is you.

Open our eyes, Lord, as you opened theirs. Rekindle the faith with us in the breaking of bread, and stay and abide with us ever after until our hearts also burn within us and we are infused by you with one holy passion to share the good news with others. Amen.

May 15 (Fourth of Easter) - John 10:1-10

Am I a shepherd after your own heart, O God, one to whom you regularly open the gate to your sheepfold? An do your sheep know and respond to the sound of my voice? Or am I only a thief and a bandit, intent more on seeking my own privilege than caring about the flock you have assigned me?

Jesus claims that all who came before him were the latter. "I am the gate," he said. "Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. Thieves come only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly." Lord, I long to be that kind of a shepherd! Purge me of all other motives in the ministry to which you have called me. And so infuse me with your Spirit that I may serve not only the flock as a whole but every individual sheep within my flock as well. Amen.

May 22 (Fifth of Easter) - John 14:1-14

We look to you, Lord, for comfort, and we never look in vain. Over the years we have learned that to look elsewhere is futile--if not in the short run then surely in the long. Increase our faith in you and keep us from trusting completely in anything or anyone else. Like Thomas and Philip we often let what sounds reasonable to us take over in life. If it does not seem to us to be reasonable--to some provable--then surely it cannot be. Thank you for your patience with them and with us, which both evidences your love and answers our questions. Help us, Lord, in light of the promise here offered, to lay aside finally our fears of death and dying so that we may live in the hope you give us that the best is yet to be. You are indeed the way, the truth, and the life. To whom should we look, now and forever, but to you? Amen.

May 29 (Sixth of Easter) - John 5:1-9

Your questions of us, Lord, not unlike your question addressed to the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, are always both inviting and penetrating--this one especially. "Do you want to be made well?" Who wouldn't, one wonders. yet some really don't. Not so this man, who for thirty-eight years had no one to help him get in to Bethzatha's pool when the waters were stirred.

"Someone always steps in ahead of me," he said wistfully. How true. We all want to be first in line, even if clearly others are far more in need that we are. Forgive us, Lord, from so centering on ourselves that we fail to see the truly needy around us.

We have heard recently of the patience of the Japanese people after all they have been through--never breaking rank in line for the food and medicines they so desperately need. Help us to be more like that when tragedies come our way.

Above all, let us look to you for the healing you offer that never requires us to stand in line. Amen .

Prayers on Gospel Texts - April, 2011

Over a period of three years now, since April of 2008, this prayer section on our website has focused on the psalm designated for each Sunday in the Church Year.

Commencing with Lent in March, 2011 we began using the gospel text for each week instead. Visitors will be helped by reading through the text as listed in each case before engaging the prayer. We hope in this way to both stimulate thought on textual themes and encourage devotional engagement week by week in each text's implications for life as we know it today.

April 3 (Fourth in Lent) – John 9:1-41

A whole chapter, Lord, given over to an extraordinary event, set in the context of an even more extraordinary conflict. A blind man healed, largely unaware of who it was that healed him. “One thing I do know,” he later told his inquisitors, “that though I was blind, now I see.”

How striking it is to me that in your presence, Lord, the blind are made to see, while those who have always had the gift of sight are proven blind. All of us who follow after you this day on your Lenten journey are caught up short—both by the miracle cited and the skepticism of those surrounding who, out of hatred for you and pride in themselves, refused to accept and believe it.

Help us, Lord, looking on both to truly see the blind man delivered and be delivered ourselves from our skepticism and unbelief. Have I substituted my religious understanding for faith in you? Am I offended in my own life by where you go and what you do that does not seem to sync with what I have assumed is proper?

Soften my heart to your Son and his grace. And help me forsake whatever pride and prejudice prevents me from glorying in his power and submitting to his rule. Amen.

April 10 (Fifth in Lent) – John 11:1-45

“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” Martha said to Mary. “Ans when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.”

A week ago we saw people who ought to have known better resisting Jesus. Here we see a woman of faith anxious to be with him, to sit quietly at his feet, as later evidenced.

Lord, make me more like Mary and less like the scribes and Pharisees, who ought to have seen and known better. Open my mind and heart to your presence and fill both with your grace, wisdom, and power.

Deliver me as you delivered Lazarus from death. lest I miss the opportunity of being with you and living in you. Raise my mind and spirit from every temptation to trust more in my wisdom than in yours. And lead me in the way everlasting. Amen.

April 17 (Palm/Passion) – Matthew 27:11-54

The silence of your Son, O God, in the midst of his accusers, is an awesome witness to the fact that they had no real authority over him. He knew and still knows that every attempt to control his destiny by anyone foolish enough to believe they have the power is destined to fail.

He was in your hands, Lord, who alone holds that power, and you had willed in love to allow him to suffer and die for our sakes that you might raise him again on the third day for our salvation.
He had no need to justify himself in any of the human tribunals to which he was sent back and forth. For he saw your will in the distance and was committed fully to obey it, that whoever later might come to believe in him could have eternal life.

Sadness prevailed for a time, as we see in this whole chapter, but joy and light were not far behind. What wondrous love is shown us here, and humility in the face of certain death! Amen.

April 23 (Easter) – John 20:1-18

How sovereign you are, O God, in power, grace and love. We see the power in your raising Jesus from the dead. We see the grace in his garden encounter (yes, garden encounter) with Mary. And we see the love in the cascading good news that spread quickly to all your people who had been drowning in despair.

And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, Martin Luther later proclaimed, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. one little word shall fell him!

There is naught to do this day but rejoice, Lord, in who you are and all you have done for us. Our joy is unending, for you have willed to save us—even from ourselves. Let nothing hinder our praise this day. And let nothing tempt us to stray from the power, grace, and love it heralds forever. Amen

Prayers on Gospel Texts - March, 2011

Over a period of two and a half years now, since July of 2008, this prayer section on our website has focused on the psalm designated for each Sunday in the Church Year.

Commencing with Lent in March, 2011 we will be using the gospel text for each week instead. Visitors will be helped by reading through the text as listed in each case before engaging the prayer. We hope in this way to both stimulate thought on textual themes and encourage devotional engagement week by week in each text's implications for life as we know it today.

Ash Wednesday, March 9 (First Week in Lent) - Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

It's all here, O God. Reminders as ashes are placed on our foreheads that we are but dust and to dust we shall one day return. Not bad news, but good if, in response to Jesus teaching, we heed it.

We need to be warned against practicing our piety--a good thing in itself--not before God first but before others. So also are warnings issued here against pride in such matters as the giving of alms and even praying and fasting--not to mention storeing up treasures for ourselves on earth.

O God, save us from all self-seeking by planting deep within us the Spirit of our Lord. Teach us your will and way, and help us in our living to serve first the interests of your Kingdom. Amen.

Sunday, March 13 (First in Lent) - Matthew 4:1-11

What must it have been like, O God, for your Son to be tempted? Any why did the Spirit lead him out over forty days and nights into the wilderness to fast before he was thus enticed by the tempter?

Surely here we are at the heart of both the trauma and triumph of redemption. The battlers here engaged are no minor characters. This is a cosmic battle between your beloved Son and a fallen, once-angelic pretender to your throne.

Thank you, O God, that you sent Jesus thus to do battle for the likes of us. And thank you for the encourgaement of knowing he won that battle by using your Word.

Teach us to speak that same Word to all our lesser temptions, O God. Free us from the fantasy that we can deliver ourselves from evil thoughts, ways, and acts. Help us to so hide your Word in our hearts that we, following Jesus, may not sin against you. Amen.

Sunday, March 20 (Second in Lent) - Matthew 17:1-9

It all appears to come together in Jesus, O God--your beloved Son. Cosmic light, your voice of approval, and the appearing of Moses and Elijah--their lineage thus passed on to Peter, James, and John. No wonder the latter fell to their knees in awe and worship--rising at your invitation to see "noone except Jesus himself alone."

This was the first text assigned me to preach on in homiletics as a freshman in seminary. Well do I remember my own fear and trembling, trying to understand why Jesus, on coming down from the mountain, instructed his disciples to "tell no one about the vision until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

Like the early disciples, we need to truly be with Jesus over time, O God--to see and affirm who he truly is. Thank you for your patience with us as we follow him--both up the mountain where he is transfigured before us and down into the valley where he leads us toward Jerusalem and his suffering and death.

And yes, O God, bring us to see him on Easter Morn, as Peter, James, John, and others did, resurrected from the dead, true Lord of life and death. Remind us daily that Jesus, once come among us, now ascended into heaven, is coming again soon to establish forever your Kingdom he announced and began among us. Amen.

March 27 (Third in Lent) - John 4:5-42

Thank you, O God, that there isn't any "no man's land" to you, as there is so often to us. Like your ancient people, who never wanted to go through Samaria, we have places ourselves where we would rather never go. But every place for you is sacred, just as it was for Jesus. He had to go through Samaria, Scripture says, and he was tired. Yet even there in that hated place we note that "he sat down by Jacob's well."

How significant that was in all that followed, Lord, as he engaged in conversation with a Samaritan woman. What was in her little life became tied to what more there was to life--in Jesus, of course, but also in the whole biblical saga going back in this case to Jacob.

Thank you, Lord, how you catch all of us unaware, whatever our name, no matter where we live or what we have done and are doing. And thank you for the heart of love with which you both are aware of our inner soul and long to heal our whole being.

Make us like Jesus, so living in you and aware of your mighty acts in history that living by your Spirit we will learn to see opportunities for witness wherever we are and go. Send us even to places we would rathwer not go and help us find there both the rest in you that is always present in sacred memory and the love for people you intend us to win for the Kingdom. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - February, 2011

February 6 (Fifth after Epiphany) - Psalm 112:1-9 (10)

Fear of and great delight in your commandments, O Lord, is by the psalmist's witness the best we can bequeath to generations yet to come. Who we worship and thus become in ourselves speaks volumes to those coming after us. If in us they see generous, just, and fearless people whose hearts are firm and secure in the Lord, their own confidence will be bolstered. The wicked may see such in us and be angry, but "the desire of the wicked comes to nothing."

Help us, O God, to have that perspective in all our living. Stay close by us in moments when we are tempted to wander away from you. Graft your Spirit into our living, and help us to reflect that Spirit in all we do and say.

Only in that way will we truly praise you, and bring both honor to your name. Amen.

February 13 (Sixth after Epiphany) - Psalm 119:1-8

As days get longer, so do the psalms, Lord, this one the longest of all. In but a few verses at the beginning, reminiscent of Psalm 1, the stage of life is set for us with reminders that those are happy in life "whose way is blameless ... who keep [your] decrees and seek [you] with their whole heart."

Your laws and decrees are lifted up in every verse of this psalm. Even so, may we lift them up every day of our lives. Keep us focused on learning and observing your word. Only so will we be kept from shameful ways of our own.

We need your help, O Lord, as we journey through this life. Simply yearning to be steadfast in keeping your statutes is not enough. We need and will continue to need the enabling power of your Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, February 20 (Seventh after Epiphany) - Psalm 119:33-40

In this continuing season of lights, Lord, we need the light of your presence to guide us. We need to be taught by you, given understanding into the mysteries of your ways and will. Turn our hearts and our eyes from looking at vanities and give us true life in you.

You have promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we are. We cannot hope to make our own way to you. But see the longing of our hearts for your righteousness and grant us life through your word and Spirit.

Deliver us also from the disgrace we always feel when your light shines upon us. Help us to see beyond the shadows of our own making the saving power of your light. And help us there to place our trust. Amen.

February 27 (Eighth after Pentecost) - Psalm 131

What beauty there is in simplicity, Lord, capturing in a few words not only the intense intense longing of our hearts but an equally intense confidence and joy in believing and belonging.

Save us from substituting great schemes of our own for simple faith in all you offer your people. Humble us under your mighty hand that we may be satisfied to live in the mystery of your will, even when we do not fully understand it. Help us, Lord, to put our trust in you and not in our feeble attempts to fully grasp all you are and offer.

Make us to be, with the psalmist, like a child at its mother's breast, feeding on your word and Spirit, and confident in hope. You have never disappointed those who look to you, Lord. Waken us to our need of the wholeness you alone offer, that we may every live in the only hope that truly satisfies. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - January, 2011

January 2 ( Epiphany) - Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

Light tied to righteousness, mercy, and justice, Lord, the way life ought to be. King David recognized it, and called on you to make it happen, not only in his life but in genrations yet to come. No doubt you were pleased with his prayer, even if not always with the way he lived.

Does light from you, so much desired, depend on the symmetry between the way we pray and the way we act? In your Son there was no division betrween the two. Help us, Lord, to live out the things we confess to want from you lest we ask in vain. Help us always to remember that Jesus is the light of the world. Only living in him and by his Spirit will we be the light for others he calls us to be. Amen.

January 9 (First after Epiphany) - Psalm 29

When you speak, O God, power abounds. like the thunder over mighty waters. Your voice breaks the cedars in Lebanon, shakes the wilderness, causes even oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare. To hear it is to respond with all your people in the only way possible, with shouts of "Glory"!

Forgive us in this season of light for glorying, as we often do, in all the lesser lights that surround us daily, tempting us to let them point our way. Teach us, rather, your way, by holding us in the light of your Son and your Spirit. Give strength to your people from the throne where you sit enthroned, and bless us with true peace. Amen.

January 16 (Second after Epiphany) - Psalm 40:1-11

The power of David's witness seems to flow here, Lord, from the narrative of his life. He waited patiently for you to draw him out "from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog." His brokenness as a man, even while yet a king, brought him to that desperate point.

Sort of owning up to his desperation, he acknowledged that the Lord would not be pleased with his sacrifices and other offerings. It was only in coming forth as he was, saying "Here I am," that the Lord gave him an open ear.

Delivered, finally, of the scourge of his sin, he was set free to witness personally to "the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation." The grace he received could not be kept there, hidden from others. It had to be shared, spread abroad, if it was to be sustained in him. What a lesson in light, Lord! Every beam of it, sent forth by you, cannot be contained, but demands to be shared. Amen!

January 23 (Third after Epiphany) - Psalm 27:1, 4-9

Deeply personal, Lord, was David's faith in you. He did not fear others after discovering that you were his light and salvation. "The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

His faith was also focused. "One thing I asked of the Lord," he writes, "that will I seek after; to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."

David knew that in so doing, you would hide him in your shelter in the day of trouble, and set him "high on a rock." He also knew that only in continuing to behold your beauty and inquire in your temple could his faith and focus be maintained. No wonder he plead with you not to hide your face from him!

Hide not your face fro us, either, Lord. We perish without you! Amen!

January 30 (Fourth after Epiphany) - Psalm 15

As light eminates from you to us, Lord, so must it eminate from us to others. Failing to reflect your light in our living, anything we offer others can hardly be helpful--much less redemptive.

Failing to "walk blamelessly ... to speak the truth from [our] heart" we evidence only the lack of light in our lives. Your light with have nothing to do with slander, doing evil to our friends, or taking up reproach against our neighbors. It calls on us also to stand by our oaths, even to our hurt, avoid lending at interest, or taking bribes against the innocent.

Only those who follow the light can be said to live in it, Lord, and they shall never be moved. Help us, Lord, both to believe that and to live it out. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - December, 2010

December 5 (Second in Advent) - Psalm 72:1-7, 18,19

Thank you, O God, that you are a superintending God--caring for your creation and all that seek in your name to sustain and prosper it. This prayer, attributed to King Solomon, might well be our prayer as well--seeking your perpetual blessing in our own lives, and your watchcare over all within our charge.

That we can make all our wants and wishes known to you and do so at your invitation is a wonderful blessing. Help us only to remember, as vss 17 and 18 remind us, that in doing so we need ever to recognize you as the only one who in your sovereign power can answer them.

Only your name endures forever, and only your fame as long as the sun. You alone do wondrous things. Bless your glorious name forever. And may your glory fill the whole earth. Amen.

December 12 (Third in Advent) - Psalm 146:5-10

How wonderful to be caught up in all the ages of history, O Lord, as we await again the coming of your Son! You are truly the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Our God today, you were also the God of Jacob and all before him whose hope was in you.

As we ponder our good fortune, stab us awake to the concerns you have always expressed for the hungry, the prisoners, the blind, the bowed down with care, as well as strangers, orphans, and widows all around us. Ignite within us your passion to serve and deliver them both physically and spiritually.

Only you will reign forever. Our lives are temporary. You, God, the God of Zion, transcends all generations. We praise you and bless your holy name! Amen.

December 19 (Fourth in Advent) - Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

How often in surrounding darkness we cry out with the psalmist, O God, to "let your face shine." It does not matter that we know well our own part in creating that darkness, being unfaithful to you, disobedient children.

Perhaps, like the psalmist, we cry out even more then. "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock.... Stir up your might, and come and save us."

Reminders of all you have done in times past fuel our pleas to do deliver us again. How grateful we can be that you never despise such pleas, even if deliverance comes only in your good time and way.

And so we plead again: "Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved." Amen.

December 26 (First after Christmas) - Psalm 148

Why is our praise of you so faint, Lord God? Why is our memory of who you are and all you have done--not only throughout history but in our own lives as well--so short? Have mercy upon us and help us in light of all we have heard and seen through Advent and Christmas itself to return to our daily round, as the shepherds once did, "praising the Lord for all they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them."

You have create us. You have fixed our bounds, and those of all nature. And you call us once again--"Kings of the earth and all peoples. princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together!"--to praise your name.

Let that begin with me, dear God. Cascade praises for you from deep within my body and soul. Let them multiply in the praising until others will take note and enter in themselves. You have raised up a horn for all your people, praise fort all your faithful. We take it now in hand and with boldness declare once again your praise! Amen.

Praying the Psalms - November, 2010

November 7 (All Saints) – Psalm 145:1-5

This day is special, Lord, in my own life as well as the church, for we remember and honor on this day generations past that have paved the way of faith for us, and enriched our lives. “One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts,” the psalmist says. How true!

How but through your Holy Spirit and their witness could we speak with the psalmist of meditating “the the glorious splendor of your majesty … and your wondrous works”? And how else would we be inspired to proclaim your awesome deeds and declare your greatness to those coming after us?

The song must go on, dear Lord, and let it be amplified in my life. Grant me the grace of proclaiming the good news day by day. Make me grateful for the privilege of receiving the blessed inheritance of all the saints in light. And help me to be useful to others in passing it on. Amen.

November 14 (28th after Pentecost) – Psalm 98

Thank you, Lord, for the breadth of your love and grace, reaching as the psalmist says “to the ends of the earth.” It is not only to the house of Israel that you have made known your victory. Your vindication has also been revealed “in the sight of the nations.”

Should I not then, with all the redeemed, “sing a new song” to you, in praise and thanksgiving for the marvelous things you have done? What a joy and comfort it is to know that your right hand and your holy arm have gotten you the victory!

With the psalmist I also invoke the whole of nature, the roaring sea and all that fills it, the world and all who live in it, with floods clapping their hands and hills singing together for joy.

Thank you, Lord for thus coming among us, and promising to come again. Amen.

November 21 (Christ the King) – Psalm 46

As one church year ends, O God, and before another begins, I bow to acknowledge your sovereignty. Truly you are our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And because you are and everlasting King “we will not fear, though the earth should change” or “the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.”

There is, indeed, “ a river whose streams make glad the city of God,” and because you are in the midst of the city “it shall not be moved.” We claim no lesser God. “The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.

You call us in the midst of tumultuous change to “be still” and know you are God, that you are exalted among the nations—indeed, in the whole earth! Teach us to hold to that
truth, and thus manifest the truth of it in our living. Amen.

November 28 (First in Advent) – Psalm 122

As yet another Advent has come at the beginning of a new church year, Lord, help us to enter fully into it with the joy of the psalmist. What better place to wait upon your coming again than in the house where you have promised to be present? Help us with a deep sense of purpose to plant our feet there, even as we hope once again for your coming among us.

Just as ancient tribes kept going up to meet you in ancient Jerusalem—bound firmly together—so may your people today keep going as we wait for the day of your special favor. For the sake of our relatives and friends we will also say, “Peace be within you,” and for the sake of the house of the Lord our God, “we will seek your good.”

Maranatha, Lord. Come quickly!

Praying the Psalms - October, 2010

October 3 (19th after Pentecost) – Psalm 137

Dear Lord, the lament of your exiled people in Babylon has always been, for me, a moving witness to lost innocence—something we all have experienced and continue to experience as your people. We have not lost everything, as they did in their unfaithfulness to you. Yet the sting of lost innocence is no less real whenever we measure our sinfulness against your sovereignty.

Why are our perspectives so limited? Why do we so often fail to heed your warnings, and why is it only on the far side of our disobedience to you that we realize all we have lost and are now denied?

It will not do in the long run to blame others, as if our being exiled were their fault. We know that, even if being human we do sometimes call down your wrath upon them. Help us rather to yearn more for your mercy so often offered us in times past. And then, Lord, grant us renewed trust in you and the spiritual strength we need to remain faithful to your will and way. Amen.

October 10 (20th after Pentecost) – Psalm 66:1-12

Sacred memories move in on me as I meditate on this psalm, Lord. Memories of your mighty acts in history, as with the psalmist, and memories more personal in home, family, and church life. Help me more and more to feed on those memories of your mighty acts until I am overcome with gratitude and spared from rebellions that seek to exalt me more than you.

I have made many joyful noises all my life, soaked in sacred memory. Songs of praise both sacred and secular have—and still do—renew my spirit. “Sing us a song, Jim,” my father often asked as we were relaxing at home or traveling somewhere. And then I would, with gusto, reveling in the privilege and blessing you for the possibility.

The music of others praises you as well when I hear it—in church, concert halls, and over TV or stereo, often moving me to tears.

Help me to keep singing through all my days, lest the texts and tunes fade from memory and dull my senses to praise you for it all. Amen.

October 17 (21st after Pentecost) – Psalm 119:97-104

I have heard it said, Lord, that this long psalm refers in every verse to your word. And I am reminded in this passage that clinging to that word is the key to wisdom and perseverance in the ups and downs of life.

Your word, the psalmist says, makes him wiser than his enemies, even wiser than his teachers. In the prime of life he understands even more than the aged by living in your word. He does not “turn away from your ordinances,” for you have taught him.

Forgive me, a servant who ought by now to know better, for not living more myself in your word. Embrace my spirit in the sweetness of it, as well as in its challenges for living. Surround me, behind and before, with its wisdom, and awaken in me again its passion for knowing, loving, and walking alongside you in all of life. Amen.

October 24 (22nd after Pentecost) – Psalm 84:1-7

How is it, Lord, that distanced by time and space from the writing of this psalm and its author I feel nonetheless the same yearnings for your house it so beautifully expresses? I would also rather spend a day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere—even if only as a doorkeeper.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

All are welcome there, even the sparrow and the swallow. Happy are those who live in your house … whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

People ask sometimes why I am always going to church. One of my forebears put it well: “Because I am afraid of what I might miss if I don’t go.” Indeed, Lord, because it is your house and you are there to tend it, I must go. For I have learned with the psalmist that no good thing do you withhold from those who walk uprightly. And I can also declare with him, Happy is everyone who trusts in you!

October 31 (23rd after Pentecost, Reformation) – Psalm 119:137-144

Letting you be who you are, O God, is surely the key to being fully what I am and was meant to be. Why is it then that so many run away from you rather than toward you and your word? Why even do I at times the same?

You are righteous. Your promise is well tried. Your law is the truth.Give me understanding that I may live.

And grant me a heart like yours, dear God, for those who as yet neither know nor honor you. An old camp song comes to mind: Lord, lay some soul upon my heart / and love that soul through me / that I may nobly do my part / to win that soul for thee. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - September, 2010

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.

Praying the Psalms - August, 2010

August 1 (Tenth after Pentecost) – Psalm 107:1-8, 43

We are called to give thanks for a reason, Lord, and the reason lies in recalling all you have done for us in times past. It is easy to forget, of course, and wonder then where you are when we need you in the present. But calling to mind your presence in times past, not to mention your mighty deeds on behalf of your people throughout history, is to know that you can be counted on today and in the future.

The redeemed of the Lord have been gathered, delivered, led, and satisfied time and again. And we are surely among such together with the psalmist. Let those who are wise give heed to these things, he declares, and consider the steadfast love of the Lord (v. 43).

Summer and time away is a wonderful opportunity for me to do just that, Lord. I have remembered your presence in my life since childhood, and am giving thanks for each reminder of the wisdom of trusting in you, whatever lies ahead.

August 8 (Eleventh after Pentecost) – Psalm 50:1-8, 22,23

I was summoned to court duty this week, Lord, and though it was delayed because I am out of state and will likely even be cancelled for my being over 70, strange now to be reminded that you too summon me and all your people—indeed the whole earth—to come before you. And from your summons there is no reprieve. It is we who will be judged, my faithful ones as you put it, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice (v.5).

You summon us to judgment. You--the mighty one, God the Lord--will speak. I will testify against you, you say. Why? Not for our sacrifices to you evidently, but for the lack of thanksgiving with which we offer them, their emptiness void of the vows that should always accompany them.

Your warning is stark. Those who forget you will be torn apart and there will be no one to deliver. But the promise remains even yet to those who repent and bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice. To all who go the right way, says the Lord, I will show the salvation of God.

August 15 (Twelfth after Pentecost) – Psalm 80: 1,2, 8-19

Thank you, Lord, for the psalmist’s plea to come to us, you who are enthroned upon the cherubim. We know we need much more than we can ever supply to you. What we need is you yourself, coming to us, you who lead Joseph like a flock. And we cry out with the psalmist, Stir up your might, and come to save us.

As before you called on us to remember your mighty acts, so now we call on you to remember as well. You brought a vine out of Egypt, you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it…. Why have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?

We plea to you, even as in times past you have pled with us. Look down from heaven and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted…. Give us life, and we will call on your name…. Let your face shine, that we may be saved.

August 22 (Thirteenth after Pentecost) – Psalm 71: 1-6

If King David needed deliverance, O Lord, how much more to we who follow in his train? In you alone is our refuge, sinful like him as we are, and wayward. Short of taking refuge in you we live in shame. Only your righteousness can deliver and rescue us. Unless you incline you ear toward us we are lost.

Surrounded by our enemies as well as yours, we need you to be our strong fortress. Only you can deliver us from the hands of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.

Do not leave me to myself, O Lord. Let my praise be of you and my hope continually in you.

August 29 (Fourteenth after Pentecost) – Psalm 81: 1, 10-16

Memories again, Lord, confront us with the psalmist. Good memories, as when you delivered us in power and love. But bad memories too, memories of our faithlessness, even our rebellion against you. It is hard to hear you say, My people did not listen to my voice. Israel would not submit to me.

So when that happened you gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. Might you be expected to do the same to us? And are you, in fact, doing it in our land even now?

O Lord, have mercy. Help us to hear your pleading: O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes…. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Praying the Psalms - July, 2010

July 4 (Sixth after Pentecost) - Psalm 30

Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. I thank you that in the spirit of the psalmist I can pray that prayer. I thank you too that, knowing myself as I do, and familiar with the darker places in my being, I can cry out for mercy and deliverance, confident that you will hear my cry and respond.

There you are, in the welcome reminder that your anger is but for a moment, your favor for a lifetime. With the hymnwriter, "I hate the sins that made you mourn and drove you from my breast." Yet, given your faithfulness, while my weeping may linger for a night, joy comes with the morning.

Time and again, Lord, you have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.

Deliver me now, Lord, once again. Blot out my transgressions, which are ever before me, and make me pure within, Amen.

July 11 (Seventh after Pentecost) - Psalm 25:1-10

As the psalmist's plea for forgiveness is also here a prayer for guidance, so is mine, O Lord. Lest you build the house, we labor in vain who build it. How many times have I sought to conquer sin in my own strength, even with good intentions, only to see my efforts fail?

Make we to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Be mindful of your mercy and tend this wandering sheep in your fold. According to your steadfast love, remember me, and guide me in the way everlasting.

Instruct and humble and teach and keep me in your way. Who have I in heaven but you, and to whom else shall I go for the words of eternal life? All your paths are steadfast love and faithfulness. Hold me close to you and keep my will in covenant with yours. Amen.

July 18 (8th in Pentecost) - Psalm 62

How is it, Lord, that even as I plea for forgiveness and guidance you deign to call me to proclaim who you are and will ever be? "Trust in him at all times, O people," you make me say. "Pour out your heart before him, God is a refuge for us."

You fill me with solemn warnings for others: "Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion," you make me proclaim. "In the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them."

Do you make me speak at one and the same time as you make me listen? Evidently so. "Once God has spoken, twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, that steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay all according to their work."

Keep me at work for you, Lord, that I do not work in vain. Amen.

July 25 (Ninth after Pentecost) - Psalm 85

Praying as I have this month, Lord--for forgiveness, guidance, and confidence to proclaim your power and glory--now turns to pleading with you on behalf of your people.

"Restore us again, O God of our salvation.... Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you. Show us your steadfsat love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.... Let us hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts."

You have both promised, O Lord, and taught me to proclaim, that you will give what is good, and that righteousness will go before you and make a path for your steps.

O Lord, come and make it happen in our common life as human beings, until steadfast love and faithfulness meet, righteousness and peace kiss each other, and earth is drawn back to you. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - June, 2010

June 6 (Second after Pentecost) - Psalm 146

How grateful I am, O Lord, for sacred reminders that keep before me the things that remain. To trust in human beings, even those of high office or degree, is sooner or later to be let down, disappointed, even disallusioned. When their breath departs, they return to the earth, and on that very day their plans perish.

More and more, it seems, I am comforted by reminders that you alone are completely trustworthy. Hope in you is never in vain, either for me or for the whole human family. You keep faith forever. You execute justice for the oppressed. You give food to the hungry. And you alone really satisfy the hungry heart.

In the world, your Son once told us, we will have tribulation. But you have overcome the world, and to live in you and by your Spirit is to have peace, and be of good cheer. You alone, O God, are forever. Renew this day our trust in you and awaken our praise. Amen.

June 13 (Third after Pentecost) - Psalm 32

To be strong, O God, and let our heart take courage, we need continually to wait on you, for the resources we need are not there when left to ourselves. We believe but need deliverance from our disbelief, and our transgressions are ever before us. Have I not often had to confess with the hymn-writer, I hate the sins that made thee mourn and drove thee from my breast?

Thank you, Lord, for transgressions forgiven and for sin covered by your grace. Thank you for imputing righteousness to me when there was none. And help me out of the gratitude I now feel in this moment to be free of every temptation to hide my transgressions from you.

Let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Amen.

June 20 (Fourth after Pentecost) - Psalm 42 and 43

Longings for you never cease in me, Lord. Yet seeking your presence and influence in my life I know also your absence, which only heightens my longings within.

Sometimes it helps to recall why, which requires confession with the psalmist: These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multiple keeping festival.

Why, then, also with the psalmist, are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Why if not for failure to live in sacred memory and thus hope in God alone?

O send out your light, and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Amen.

June 24 (Fifth after Pentecost) - Psalm 77

In times of trouble and doubt, dear Lord, help us call to mind--both in our lives and in the larger framework of human history--how you have worked wonders and displayed your might, not only in the midst of your world and your people.

Like the Israelites of old, it is easy for us to forget both your glory and your grace when life seems to tumble in on us and we are so troubled that we can hardly speak.

We are always in need of perspective, Lord, which only you and memories of your mighty acts in history can supply. Lift us above those moments of threat and danger in our lives that drain our faith and tempt us to think you have forsaken us. Give us patience to wait on you and hope in you, knowing that in your own time and way you will be true to your promise never to leave us or forsake us Amen.

Praying the Psalms - May, 2010

May 2, Fifth of Easter - Psalm 148

It is early morning, Lord, and one cannot escape the psalmist's call to praise. All you have called to be is called in turn to priase you: angels, son and moon, shining stars, highest heavens, even waters above the heavens. Why? Because you commanded and they were created, you established them forever, and you fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.

The list goes on. Also called to praise is everything on earth: sea monsters, fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy winds fulfilling your command. Humanity, too: kings and all peoples, princes and all rulers, young men and women alike, old and young together.

What surprises me is also what is said of you at the end: "He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful." Ought that not be our greatest reason to praise you, that you actually praise us. Thank you, God, for your sovereign power. And thank you even more for your boundless mercy and grace, Amen.

May 9, Sixth of Easter - Psalm 67

Few moments pass in our lives without prayers for your blessing, Lord: "be gracious to us and bless us and make [your] face to shine upon us." Surely our needs are great and you have invited us to come before you night and day to make them known.

Too often, however, we confess to forgetting why you bless us, "that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among the nations."

Forgive us our penchant for hoarding your many blessings, spending them on ourselves without passing our witness to them on to others. Give us more gladness of heart. Help our songs to be so full of joy that we manifest our praise to you and thus multiply it in others.

You are forever yeilding our increase as your people. May you continue to do so. And may we going forward share our gratitude for the whole world to see and take note of you! Amen.

May 16, Seventh of Easter (Ascension) - Psalm 97

Surely the psalmist understood your majesty, Lord, and lauds it again in our hearing. In this season of Easter and not least as we celebrate again Christ's ascension into heaven have we not even more evidence of your sovereignty over all of creation?

Bathe us again in the splender of both your coming to us in him, and his leaving from us to return to your right hand--not as if to abandon us to ourselves but to send then your Spirit to dwell among us forever. Restore to us, Lord, both the glory and the grace of salvation in your name, that we may indeed be your righteous servants and joyful children.

Save us from all selfishness of spirit that diminishes our praise of you, and so come within us as to exalt your name with power. Amen.

May 23, Pentecost - Psalm 104:24-35

Thank you, Lord, for all the reminders in this psalm of creation's dependence on you: "the sea, great and wide, creeping...and living things both small and great," even ships at sea. "These all look to you to give them theiir food in due season; when you give it to them they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground."

All glory belongs to you. We spend our years as a tale that is told...and it is soon over and we fly away (Psalm 90). But you are forever, and we are totally dependent through all our days on you and your Spirit--both for the gift of life and for its sustaining.

Today we plead for eyes to see and ears to hear again your coming among us. Save us from evil days and the fate of the wicked who scorn your ways. Make us of one mind and heart in the body of Christ into which you have raised us by your grace. And fill us continually with your Spirit that we may manifest in daily living the fruit that comes of depending on you. Amen.

May 30, First after Pentecost (Trinity) - Psalm 8

What is man, indeed Lord, that you should be mindful of him? O blessed Trinity, in whom we live and move and have our being, deliver us from the awful pride inherent in shutting ourselves off from you. Help us to remain open to the heavens that declare your glory and become again like little babes and sucklings in whom you have founded a bulwark for our faith.

You have given us domion over the earth, and are waiting always to crown us with glory and honor. "How majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Help us, Lord, to be all that you created us to be. Teach us your ways and empower us to walk in them. Build into our minds the breadth of your mind, and into our wills the disiplines of your Spirit. Then, as on the first Pentecost, we will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - April, 2010

Easter Sunday - April 4, Psalm 118: 1,2; 14-20

Your steadfast love, O God, needs reaffirming--especially on this day, when all the clouds that obscure our normal vision and faith are broken through by the resurrection of your Son from the dead. Let Israel say it. Let the house of Aaron say it. And let all those who fear the Lord say it, beginning with us.

Songs of victory abound among your people all over this world today--praising, honoring, and exalting all that your right hand has done for our salvation. All because of you we shall not die but live.

Open to us, with the psalmist, the gates of righteousness he longed to enter, that we too may enter into them and give thanks, For you have delivered us in our day of trouble, and set us to building on a cornerstone that cannot be shaken. It is all your doing, Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Amen.

Second of Easter - April 11, Psalm 150

Can our praise of you, O Lord, ever measure up to your worthiness of receiving it? Will the worship expressing it in your sanctuary this day reflect all your mighty deeds in nature as well as in human history?

Help us in our worship--both private and public--to pull out all the stops on the instruments we use to praise you. Free us by your grace to offer you a truly many-throated laud, riding on the sounds coming from all the instruments gathered to accompany our thanks.

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! Amen.

Third of Easter - April 18, Psalm 30

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come;

our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.

Under the shelter of your wings, your saints have dwelt secure,

sufficient is your arm alone, and our defense is sure.

How dare we think otherwise about our lives, dear Lord, given all you have done and still are doing among us? Evil rides high on the swelling tides all around us, but we have found safely in the harbor of your love. You have heard the supplications of all your people over ages in time, and you hear us still.

Help us, then, to be strong and let our hearts take courage as we wait on you in your presence. Amen.

Fourth of Easter - April 25, Psalm 23

You are, indeed, the Good Shepherd, O God, for your are forever guarding our ways, causing us to lie down in green pastures, leading us beside still waters, and restoring our souls.

How wonderful it is to know in the midst of life with all its perils that you are present to guide us, teach us your will, and supply our every need!

Even when we walk through the valley of death you are with us. Your rod and your staff, they comfort us,.

Surely we can trust you through all the days ahead for us. Help us this very day to affirm that by choosing to dwell in your house, by your side, our whole life long. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - March, 2010

March 7 (Third in Lent) - Psalm 63:1-8

A Psalm of David, we are told, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Indeed, O Lord, for the longing it expresses is better known by those who sense the wilderness around them, even now as he did then.

Does not my heart cry out in much the same way, with much the same language of yearning? You are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Rising early this morning to check my emails, dear God, I was greeted by a Facebook offer from a friend to sign in at a website offering all kinds of free movies. For the most part they were trash, a wilderness of promises only to entertain, to experience terror and violence and degradation. How could I who have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory profit from any of that?

Teach me, Lord, to seek you, to think on you, to cling to you in the wilderness of our times. Lead me to walk with you toward and into the only joys worth knowing, as you move toward Jerusalem and focus on giving yourself to gather us from life's wilderness into your fold. Amen.

March 14 (Fourth in Lent) - Psalm 32

Oh to be open, Lord, as David was, to confess both my need of you and the abiding joy of those to whom you impute no iniquity, in whose spirit there is no guile. Why are we so prone to run away from you, to hide from your gracious presence rather than seek it?

Many are the torments of the wicked, David acknowledges, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.

You are always ready to instruct and teach us the way we should go. Do not be like a horse or mule without understanding, you say through the psalmist. Let our stubbornness be curbed with your bit and bridle, lest we wander away from your side.

Make us to be upright in heart, and righteous. Then we will be glad in you, and rejoice with shouts of joy. Amen.

March 21 (Fourth in Lent) - Psalm 126

Longings for you, Lord, are often tied to the memory of better times in our past, when our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. In such times it it was recognized by others, even our enemies, that the Lord has done great things for them.... And we rejoiced.

Evidently that was not so when your people were led away into captivity. Times and circumstances change, even for us--like misfortune of one kind or another, failed health, even the aging process. Then we think things are not as they once were within and among us as your people.

To whom shall we then turn but to you for restoration and hope? Restore our fortunes, O Lord.... May those who [now] sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.

Thank you for the promise that ends this psalm: Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves. Amen.

March 28 (Fifth in Lent) - Psalm 118:1,2, 19-29

Help us Lord, this Lenten season, to see our lives in greater perspective, even as Jesus did on his way to Jerusalem. Help us with the psalmist, no matter our circumstance looking forward, to Praise the Lord.... Extol him... For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

To focus on you, O God, is to live in a world above circumstance--not above the pains which your Son and we experience in life as it is, but above their enduring power. We can always pray to you in confidence and be lifted above our circumstance. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.... This is the day [yes, this day and every day] that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Life changes for all of us, often in ways we do not like. But we can always and everywhere with the psalmist, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - February, 2010

February 7 (Fifth after Epiphany) - Psalm 138

David gives you thanks, Lord, with his whole heart. Is that really possible unless, like him, we witness how you you have "exalted your word and your name above everything"? Somehow that makes sense. When you exalt your name above everything I feel too like giving thanks with my whole heart, And when I can witness with David that "on the day I called you answered me [and] increased my strength of soul" everything within me wants to give you thanks.

Sacred memory seems to be the key, Lord, doesn't it? Memories of your strong hand in the midst of our daily living, preserving us as you did David against all enemies and delivering us to fulfill your purpose for our lives.

Forgive me, Lord, for trying so hard by myself to be thankful, as if I had that power within me. Help me rather to look continually to the work of your hands until my soul comes alive with praise. Amen.

February 14 (Last after Epiphany, Transfiguration) - Psalm 99

We long, God, to see and know you as you are. We know that all those in Bible times who did experience your glory never looked directly on you, for no one can do so and live. Yet even the hint of your glorious presence would be enough to awaken our sense both of awe and praise.

What must it have been like for Peter, James, and John to see your Son transfigured before them on the mountain to which he had brought them? And what was it that so shook Moses in Old Testament times, or to your people traveling in the wilderness when you came among them in the pillar of cloud to deliver your statutes and guide their wanderings?

Come among us again, Lord, and show us your glory. Do not withhold your Holy Spirit from us. Reawaken in us rather the genuine sense of worship that comes only of your presence in the midst of your people, and the mighty acts by which you both guide and deliver them in the midst of daily life. Amen.

February 21 (First in Lent) - Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

What a great psalm this is, Lord, one that has been continuously comforting to your people since it was first written. To behold your glory around is one thing. But to experience it as comfort within is even more wonderful. To live "in the shelter of the Most High, and abide in the shadow of the Almighty." No wonder all who have experienced that say of you, Lord, that you are "my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust."

And why? Because making you our refuge and dwelling place we know that "no evil can befall us, no scourge come near our tent." Living in you changes things, Lord. Even things that would otherwise seem unbearable to us are overcome by the strong sense of your presence and purpose.

Thank you that you still command your angels concerning us, to guard us in all our ways. Thanks you for answering us when we call on you, for being with us in trouble, and thus both rescuing and honoring us, even satisfying us with long life. Amen.

February 28 (Second in Lent) - Psalm 27

How wonderful to see how the faith of the psalmist--believing that he shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (v.13)--grows out of living with you over time. Remind me today and through this week how central my relationship with you is to the sustaining of my faith in you.

Good friends over time, not on the same level of course, but friends nonetheless. You, Lord, deigning to reach out to me, and longing for me to reach out to you as well. How wise the psalmist to ask for one thing and one thing only, "to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple" (v. 4).

Continue to "teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path." And help me to wait for you in the midst of life's busyness, that I may indeed be strong and take courage in my heart. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - January, 2010

January 3 (Epiphany Sunday) - Psalm 72:1-7; 10-14

Behind and before us, Lord, are your eternal reign. David and Solomon as kings among your people, together with all who became kings in Israel after them, were in constant need of the intercessions here made on their behalf. Neither to them as individuals nor their kingdoms belonged the ultimate honor. That was reserved for you and your Kingdom, which is over all.

Even so, Lord, teach us our need for intercession, lest we forget. It is tempting to take the reins of life we have inherited as if we were now in charge going forward. Save us from that temptation. Intercede for us before your Father and our God. Grant us and those who come after us your justice and your righteousness, lest we seek for ourselves the power and honor that belongs only to you.

O divine shepherd, guide and befriend us now, that being filled in this Epiphany season with your light we may mirror that light in life around us and live our days in the power of your Spirit and according to your will. Amen.

January 10 (Baptism of our Lord, First after Epiphany) - Psalm 29

Why, Lord, in the maelstrom of daily life with all its challenges and demands, do we so often lose our way? Why do we so easily forget that you alone are our light and salvation, the stronghold of our lives? Why, beholding your beauty Sunday after Sunday, inquiring with your people in your temple, do we lay it aside on weekdays following, selling our inheritance like Abel for more instant gratifications?

Hide us, Lord, once more in the shelter of your presence. Conceal us under the cover of your tent. Set us high on a rock above those who offer us but passing fancies. Do not turn your servants away in anger over our forgetfulness. Take us up, rather, into your presence day by day and teach us there your will and way.

Great , indeed, is your faithfulness, Lord. Restore in us the joy of your salvation. Let us see gain your goodness in the land of the living. Give us the courage to wait on you that we may be made strong in the power of your Spirit. Amen.

January 17 (Second after Epiphany) - Psalm 36:5-10

Sins, Lord, are surely not our greatest transgression. It is sin, rather, the tendency deep within our nature to forget you and the blessings only you can provide.

Not unlike the foolish ones described in the opening verses, who "flatter themselves in their own eyes" and "have ceased to act wisely and do good," we too often are "set on a way that is not good." How wonderful in the bleakness of such living to be brought back by doxologic reminders from the psalmist of all we are offered in you.

Steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness, refuge, abundance--all these await us in your presence. With you and you alone is "the fountain of life." And "in your light we see light." Thank you, Lord, that you still pursue us when we go astray. Bring us home again, where we belong. Restore to us the joy of your salvation. And help us to teach others your ways and bring them home as well. Amen.

January 24 (Third after Epiphany) - Psalm 19

There is no speech, Lord, as if vocal chords were necessary to declare your praise. The heavens themselves declare it, proclaiming your handiwork "to the end of the earth." A hymn comes to mind: "all nature sings and 'round me rings the music of the spheres."

It is not the heavens themselves, of course, any more than the mountains to which the psalmist also lifted his eyes (121). Our help comes from you, Lord, who made both, you who inhabit all things. It is your law, your decrees, your precepts, your commandments, your ordinances the heavens declare. Seeing alone cannot reveal them. They are seen only by beholders who see you in them, eyes trained and focused on scripture absorbed over years.

And in thus truly seeing, Lord, we are warned against seeing only and not living into what we see. We are also reminded that "in keeping them there is great reward." Pray then, my soul, beholding with the psalmist: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." Amen.

January 31 (Fourth after Epiphany) - Psalm 71:1-6

In reading this, Lord, Isaiah 30:15 comes to mind: "...In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." Those are words from your mouth and heart, Lord God, the Holy One of Israel--promises on which we can depend throughout our lives.

Forgive us for forgetting how dependent on you we are. And increase our faith, Lord, that we can depend on you to deliver and rescue us, to be our rock and fortress. Help us see in you and you alone our hope going forward, to remember and affirm what we have known from our birth, when we were taken from our mother's womb.

No one whose "praise is continually of you" can fail, Lord, no matter how tested and tried by circumstance. Grant us, then, the grace to take our refuge now and always in you. Amen.

Praying the Psalms - December, 2009

December 6 (Second in Advent) - Malachi 3:1-4

O to be a voice, Lord, in the wilderness of these times--the wildersness of plenty as well as the wilderness of need. Satan stands accusing your high priest Jacob in Malachi, even as he stands beside us, intimidating, confusing the mind, robbing us of the clarity we need to speak your word.

Thank you for rebuking him and affirming your servants. Thank you, too, for removing the filthy rags in which we are clothed and reclothing us in festal garments--thus to signal the taking away of our guilt.

Give us now the grace to wait in your presence for all you would have us declare, that the surrounding wilderness might, as Isaiah promised, blossom like the rose and be fed by fresh streams from your Spirit. Amen.

December 13 (Third in Advent) - Isaiah 12:2-6

We sing often, Lord, that "your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light upon my way." How true!

If it were not for you and your coming to us, once as a babe and soon as Lord of all, where would we be.

The hope that is within us is full of yearning foir you. No one less can satisy those yearnings. Surely you are our salvation and you have proven yourself trustworthy over and over again.

Help us, Lord, to make you known in all the places where we live, and send us forth to unknown climes where others yearn as we do for your presence and power. Take from our souls the strain and stress and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of your peace. Amen.

December 20 (Fourth in Adent) - Psalm 80:1-7

It is Stir Up Sunday again, Lord, and we need your Spirit throughout this busy week. Captive to ouyr culture, especially this time of year, it is hard to focus in on what really matters--yoiur coming among us.

Let your face shine that we may be saved. Bring to memory all your mighty acts in history and in our own lives, and help us make our way to the manger where your Son lies who is our only Lord and Savior.

Let us hear the angel's song once more in the clear cold air of midnight. And let us return from the glories awaiting us by the manger bed gloryifying and praising God for all we have heard and seen. again, even as it has been told us. Amen.

December 27 (First after Christmas) - Psalm 148

Once again, Lord, we have seen and experienced for ourselves how gracious and merciful you are. Truly your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

Remind us moving forward how faithful you have been and are. Help us with all who by faith are righteous that you raise up all who are bowed down and give them food in due season. And help us declare in our world that you are near to all who call upon you in truth, fulfilling the desire of every human heart.

Tune our hearts to sing your praise and stir our minds to do your bidding, 'till all flesh will bless your name with us forever and ever. Amen.