It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Daily Prayer, Friday, July 19, 2013

I am like a green olive tree
   in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
I will thank you forever,
   because of what you have done.
In the presence of the faithful
   I will proclaim your name, for it is good.


Morning

Invitatory Psalm 118
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures forever!
….
Let those who fear the Lord say,
    “His steadfast love endures forever.”

Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
the Lord answered me
   and set me in a broad place.
With the Lord on my side I do not fear.
What can mortals do to me?
The Lord is on my side to help me;
I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to put confidence in mortals.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to put confidence in princes.
...
The Lord is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
There are glad songs of victory
  in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
the right hand of the Lord is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.”
I shall not die, but I shall live,
   and recount the deeds of the Lord.
...
The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God, and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
   up to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God, I will extol you.
O give thanks to the Lord,
   for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 41
Happy are those who consider the poor;
the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
The Lord protects them and keeps them alive;
   they are called happy in the land.
You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.

The Lord sustains them on their sickbed;
   in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
   heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
My enemies wonder in malice when I will die,
   and my name perish.
And when they come to see me, they utter empty words,
   while their hearts gather mischief;
   when they go out, they tell it abroad.
….

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
   from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

Psalm 42
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
   while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”

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 multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
   for I shall again praise him,
   my help and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
   therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan
    and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
   because the enemy oppresses me?”
As with a deadly wound in my body,
   my adversaries taunt me,
   while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my help and my God.

Psalm 43
Vindicate me, O God,
   and defend my cause against an ungodly people;
from those who are deceitful and unjust deliver me!
For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you cast me off?
Why must I walk about mournfully
   because of the oppression of the enemy?
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.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my help and my God.

Psalm 47
Clap your hands, all you peoples;
shout to God with loud songs of joy.
For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome,
   a great king over all the earth.
….
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the king of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm.
God is king over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
The princes of the peoples gather
   as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
he is highly exalted.

Daily Lectionary Reading, Amos 8:1-12
This is what the LORD God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “ Amos, what do you see? ” I said, “ A basket of summer fruit. ” Then the LORD said to me, “ The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again forgive them. 3 On that day, the people will wail the temple songs, ” says the LORD God; “ there will be many corpses, thrown about everywhere. [e] Silence. ”

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and destroy the poor of the land, 5 saying, “ When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath so that we may offer wheat for sale, make the ephah smaller, enlarge the shekel, and deceive with false balances, 6 in order to buy the needy for silver and the helpless for sandals, and sell garbage as grain? ” 7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget what they have done. 8 Will not the land tremble on this account, and all who live in it mourn, as it rises and overflows like the Nile, and then falls again, like the River of Egypt? [f] 9 On that day, says the LORD God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your feasts into sad affairs and all your singing into a funeral song; I will make people wear mourning clothes and shave their heads; I will make it like the loss of an only child, and the end of it like a bitter day. 11 The days are surely coming, says the LORD God, when I will send hunger and thirst on the land; neither a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the LORD’s words. 12 They will wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they will roam all around, seeking the LORD’s word, but they won’t find it. _________________________________________________ e Heb uncertain

f Heb uncertain
[Common English Bible]

Prayer for Today: Lord, turn our attention back to your will. Forgive us for the times that we have ignored your ways. We ask now for your mercy. Gather us into your arms. Support us once again. Amen.

Lectio Divina: Amos 8:4-7

Midday Psalm 119:78-88
Let the arrogant be put to shame,
   because they have subverted me with guile;
as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
Let those who fear you turn to me,
   so that they may know your decrees.
May my heart be blameless in your statutes,
   so that I may not be put to shame.
My soul languishes for your salvation;
I hope in your word.
My eyes fail with watching for your promise;
I ask, “When will you comfort me?”
For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,
yet I have not forgotten your statutes.
How long must your servant endure?
When will you judge those who persecute me?
The arrogant have dug pitfalls for me;
they flout your law.
All your commandments are enduring;
I am persecuted without cause; help me!
They have almost made an end of me on earth;
   but I have not forsaken your precepts.
In your steadfast love spare my life,
   so that I may keep the decrees of your mouth.

Evening
Psalm 74
O God, why do you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smoke
   against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your congregation,
   which you acquired long ago,
   which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage.
Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.

Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
Your foes have roared within your holy place;
they set up their emblems there.
….

How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
Why do you hold back your hand;
why do you keep your hand in your bosom?

Yet God my King is from of old,
   working salvation in the earth.
You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
You cut openings for springs and torrents;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the luminaries and the sun.
You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
you made summer and winter.

Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
   and an impious people reviles your name.
Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;
do not forget the life of your poor forever.
Have regard for your covenant,
   for the dark places of the land
   are full of the haunts of violence.
Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
    the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.

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