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.
