Morning Devotion for the season of Advent
Monday December 20, 2021
The Invitatory
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
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.
Our king and Savior now draws near; Come let us adore him.
Reading: Psalm 62
1 For God alone my soul in silence waits; *
from him comes my salvation.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, *
my stronghold, so that I shall not be greatly shaken.
3 How long will you assail me to crush me,
all of you together, *
as if you were a leaning fence, a toppling wall?
4 They seek only to bring me down from my place of honor; *
lies are their chief delight.
5 They bless with their lips, *
but in their hearts they curse.
6 For God alone my soul in silence waits; *
truly, my hope is in him.
7 He alone is my rock and my salvation, *
my stronghold, so that I shall not be shaken.
8 In God is my safety and my honor; *
God is my strong rock and my refuge.
9 Put your trust in him always, O people, *
pour out your hearts before him, for God is our refuge.
10 Those of high degree are but a fleeting breath, *
even those of low estate cannot be trusted.
11 On the scales they are lighter than a breath, *
all of them together.
12 Put no trust in extortion;
in robbery take no empty pride; *
though wealth increase, set not your heart upon it.
13 God has spoken once, twice have I heard it, *
that power belongs to God.
14 Steadfast love is yours, O Lord, *
for you repay everyone according to his deeds.
Meditation – Michael Palmisano
The biblical scholar Robert Altar translates the first line of this psalm as follows:
“Only in God is my being quiet. From Him is my rescue.” It’s a lovely rendering which takes seriously the textual richness of the Hebrew word “nephesh,” a word that can be translated in many ways: soul, being, life, creature, desire, passion etc.
Whenever the word “nephesh” is used throughout Scripture, our ears must be attentive to its earliest usage from the book of Genesis when God created mankind. In the beginning we are told that God created man from the dust and that He breathed into the man’s nostril. In that same moment of God’s exhalation the man became a living being (nephesh; Genesis 2:7). The Creation story makes it clear that man’s being is intimately acquainted and dependent upon the breath of God. God’s own nearness – even the nearness of His breath – raises mankind to a dignity higher than that of the disorganized, chaotic, atomic, dust.
Through the simplest acts of our inhalation and exhalation we may be reminded of this our dependence and cooperation with the God who made all things. To those human beings for whom the awareness of breath’s giftedness is understood, breathing can become the most basic means of communication with God. Those for whom such an awareness is accessed will even find that breath itself can be as prayer unto God.
In silence the Psalmist is attentive to this great mystery of God’s ultimate creating power. In silence the Psalmist is attentive to the God who is intimately near to us – or as the 19th c English poet, Alfred Tennyson says, the God who is “…[c]loser… than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Closing Prayer
O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
