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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
October 11, 2024
The Invitatory
The earth is the Lord’s for he made it: O come, let us adore him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Reading: Psalm 67
1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, *
show us the light of his countenance and come to us.
2 Let your ways be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.
7 May God give us his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
How very exciting to learn that the oldest scraps of Scripture that archeologists have ever found are little scrolls of thinly hammered out silver, with: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26) They are believed to be nearly three thousand years old! It would seem that these words greatly affected the writer of Psalm 67, who probably knew this blessing quite well.
How expansive the psalmist is in praying that the Lord be gracious to us - to you and to me - without definition nor qualification, nor limitation as to who is included in “us.” This is both beautiful and quite challenging. It stretches us, somewhat like the Grinch’s heart that grew three sizes. We must overcome our limited concerns for those immediate to us so that we might regard others and their need for graciousness. It also causes us to pause and reflect more deeply on the breadth and depth of God’s care and love for all of God’s creation. It virtually eliminates competition and restrains us from thinking that we must hoard for ourselves literally all of God’s blessings. Feel the energy in the language, ever rising upward to God!
As the worshippers address “our” God, let us recall that that is exactly how we begin The Lord’s Prayer with Our Father. God is not ours in the sense that we own God, and not someone else’s. This “our” reaches out to embrace others - strangers, people who may pray differently, those in distant places, and those who are different from us. We are reminded that the world is large - all creation is large. And then imagine how broad and wide and deep God is! And yet God is present, even intimate with us, and his grace is lavish. Think of the sweep of God’s work through history. It is breathtaking!
Let us be mindful, as the Psalm calls us to be, that there are other facets to this love: there is judgment with equity. We should not draw back in fear of condemnation. There are conditions to love, chiefly that we are responsible for living a certain type of life. When our actions do not arise from love, God’s judgment functions as a corrective - a call to love again. It is an invitation to love another, and in correcting ourselves, interestingly, to love ourselves.
For all of that is given from God to his creation, the Psalm evokes our thanksgiving. For these powerful words definitely arouse thanksgiving and the blessing of others. Interestingly, it seems the Israelites believed that divine energy passed from one person to another simply by speaking, thus harnessing the power of words. Of that we are cautioned to be mindful and considerate. And finally, God blesses us, a blessing shared with others. We are blessed in the company of so many. What generosity!
For the Right Use of God’s Gifts
Almighty God, whose loving hand hath given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honor thee with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of thy bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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