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Morning Devotion for Ordinary Time
July 9, 2025
Reading: Psalm 12:1-4,6-7
Help me, Lord, for there is no godly one left;
the faithful have vanished from among us.
Everyone speaks falsely with his neighbor;
with a smooth tongue they speak from a double heart.
Oh, that the Lord would cut off all smooth tongues,
and close the lips that utter proud boasts!
Those who say, “With our tongue will we prevail;
our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?
The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined from ore
and purified in the fire.
O Lord, watch over us
and save us from this generation forever.
Meditation - Peter Vanderveen
I remember from my childhood the fairly regular comment made to me that something was “an acquired taste.” This was often said with regard to foods that, when I first tried them, I found to be somewhere on the spectrum between awful and repulsive. I’d count green olives, eggplant, okra, lima beans, blue cheese, sardines, anchovies, and oysters as just a few among many. To be told that I might “acquire” a liking for these foods was an interesting response. It didn’t have the force of reprimand, as if I “should” like them. Instead, I was being encouraged to believe that part of the gift of growing older would be that I could develop a refined and expanded palate. The pleasures of taste could be multiplied. This, to my mind, became part of the benefit of achieving adulthood.
Of course, I discovered that this applies not just to foods but to many experiences, particularly of the arts: music, theater, architecture, and so much of what is displayed in photographs and paintings – these acquire more depth and meaning with time. There remains always the possibility that the world continues to open to us.
And in the same way, I have come, with time, to more fully appreciate the psalms. They, too, are an acquired taste. When I was young, they seemed dry and stilted and reflective of a world that had disappeared centuries ago. They were perfunctorily read as part of worship, but this seemed to me to be no more than a respectful nod to a dusty tradition. But, with age, I have found that they address the deepest realities of human life, often with startling insight. It takes time to realize how true they are and, even more, how relevant they remain. We pride ourselves now with the ever increasing rate of the progress we seem to make; but the psalms remind us of aspects of ourselves that seem unbudgeable, whether for good or ill. They keep us honest. And all that really needs to be said of the initial verses of Psalm 12 is that they address the pathologies of our time with such directness, without any hedging or apology, that, even amid all the media noise that surrounds us, we are laid bare – which we need, more than anything else.
Prayer
We will stand before you, O Lord, at the last,
and we will know as we are known,
and we will see what we have failed to see;
open our eyes to see and know that we stand in your presence now,
that you are here before us, seeking our response of love;
grant that we may respond now in such a way
that we may be prepared to stand before you at the last.
Christopher Webber
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