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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
June 12, 2023
Invitatory
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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 57
1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful,
for I have taken refuge in you;
in the shadow of your wings will I take refuge
until this time of trouble has gone by.
2 I will call upon the Most High God,
the God who maintains my cause.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will confound those who trample upon me;
God will send forth his love and his faithfulness.
4 I lie in the midst of lions that devour the people;
their teeth are spears and arrows,
their tongue a sharp sword.
5 They have laid a net for my feet,
and I am bowed low;
they have dug a pit before me,
but have fallen into it themselves.
6 Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God,
and your glory over all the earth.
7 My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed;
I will sing and make melody.
8 Wake up, my spirit;
awake, lute and harp;
I myself will waken the dawn.
9 I will confess you among the peoples, O Lord;
I will sing praise to you among the nations.
10 For your loving-kindness is greater than the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
11 Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God,
and your glory over all the earth.
Meditation - Winnie Smith
Psalms are so dramatic. They often sound like snippets from an adolescent’s journal: verbose descriptions of torment and affliction brought on by others, longing for someone to understand them, feelings of isolation. Many of the 150 psalms compiled in the Old Testament are petitions: individuals’ pleas to God. Psalm 57 is one of these. It is described as a petition for God’s faithfulness, but also includes a promise of praise. This is typical of a lament/petition psalm and is what distinguishes it from most teens’ journal entries: after complaints and frustrations, the writer turns to praise. It is a model for all of us to always be grateful, even in the midst of difficulty.
This psalm contains only 11 verses, but nearly half of them voice fear of others. The speaker cries out to God for protection “until the destroying storms pass by.” She feels “among lions that greedily devour human prey…they set a net for my steps…they dug a pit in my path.” This sounds terrifying! It is easy to understand why the psalmist turns to God - where else can she go? Feeling as though the people around her are attacking her, as though they are determined to cause her to stumble - she must turn to something or someone bigger.
I hope that most of us never feel this psalmist’s desperation. Surely at times we will all feel stress and fear, but hopefully never to this extent. Even when the problems seem small, when the little frustrations and fears of life gnaw away at us, I hope that we all still turn to God. God is not only there for the catastrophic moments, but for the everyday support and comfort we cannot always provide ourselves. The psalms are not merely dramatic diary entries from thousands of years ago; they are tools to be used today in our own prayer lives. Reading and praying with the psalms can give words to our feelings and can open up a way for us to communicate those feelings to God.
Perhaps the most important part of any lament or petition psalm is the turn to praise, usually found at the end of the text. Psalm 57 is no exception. Even in the midst of ongoing expressions of fear, the psalmist cries out, “be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.” Amid the trials and tribulations of life, she still praises God for the many blessings bestowed upon her: “I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens.” This is what is most inspiring to me in the psalms, and what - at least at times - seems most difficult to replicate. Complaining and lamenting is easy; praise is difficult. But let us continually read these words and move towards a posture of praise, from which, at any moment of our lives, we are still able to recognize and praise God for his steadfast and abiding love.
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.
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