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Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent
February 28, 2024
The Invitatory
Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord you God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.
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 31:9-16
9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; *
my eye is consumed with sorrow,
and also my throat and my belly.
10 For my life is wasted with grief,
and my years with sighing; *
my strength fails me because of affliction,
and my bones are consumed.
11 I have become a reproach to all my enemies and
even to my neighbors,
a dismay to those of my acquaintance; *
when they see me in the street they avoid me.
12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; *
I am as useless as a broken pot.
13 For I have heard the whispering of the crowd;
fear is all around; *
they put their heads together against me;
they plot to take my life.
14 But as for me, I have trusted in you, O Lord. *
I have said, "You are my God.
15 My times are in your hand; *
rescue me from the hand of my enemies,
and from those who persecute me.
16 Make your face to shine upon your servant, *
and in your loving-kindness save me."
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
Bear in mind that this portion of eight verses is one-third of Psalm 31. Yes, there is an appeal to God for God’s mercy, but with no breath to spare, the psalmist races on. The psalmist sounds desperate as he is besieged on all sides by many threats, troubles and dire circumstances. To use a recent movie title, it seems everything - everywhere - all at once. The use of the present and past tenses confines this person to his own experience, with absolutely no perspective. Take careful note of the tenses of the verbs. They direct us to take account of what happens, particularly to the speaker’s awareness of his life over time. There is a constant complaint, a prolonged lamentation. For the reader, (at least this one) it feels entirely exhausting. This present time is a time that seems obsessed with itself. The psalmist’s internal life feels distraught without any relief and therefore no perspective, awareness of anything beyond the self. One has the sense that this life, unfortunately, leads nowhere. The opening of this portion of the Psalm reveals a time when the speaker, having fallen, is now locked into a tortured search for the worth and meaning of his life. Who among us does not, from time to time, fall victim to this difficult, trying and altogether depressing cycle in life? What we have witnessed in these verses is an expression of how one experiences life in natural time, time that is a part of God’s original creation, captured in the cycle of this individual speaker.
So much for in this cycle, the time of one who has fallen. Verses 14 -16 herald time of redemption. Here we recognize time as time of salvation, as the speaker appeals directly to God, recognizes God and that his times are in God’s hand. Hopefully, for the speaker, this was energizing, exciting, inciting a deep hope and longing for what may come in the future. When the psalmist acknowledges God and that the psalmist’s times are in God’s hand, the tone of the psalm shifts dramatically, as does the fate of the psalmist. For we come to reckon with the transcendent reality of the presence of God in his creation and, more importantly, in our lives. Yes, we have difficulties, yet I imagine most of us can look back on those times, now recognizing that the favorable outcomes that we could not even imagine were eventually realized, and sometimes, more often than not, the worst did not occur. The psalmist at least is reaching for God to bring into being a reality that overcomes the obstacles and difficulties that he faces. It will probably be far more than he can ask or imagine. But we reading this should not be surprised, for the limitations that are ours simply by our human nature, do not by any means curtail or limit the transcendence of God Almighty. This is the hope we have to comfort us in our journey through the Lenten season and in all the days to come.
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, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
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