Prayer: Dear God, we praise you for your blessings around us. Amen.
Reading: Psalm 67 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: When getting ready to write a devotion, I first take out my NRSV Bible, the same translation used in the link to click on above and read the text from there. If I need another translation, I grab my NIV Bible which was a gift from Camp Mount Luther Summer 2006. If the text is a Psalm, I sometimes pull out a book called Psalms/Now in which the psalmists’ prayers are in the words and phrases of today. Psalm 67 is a song of praise to God; particularly praying for help and asking for God’s blessing. So, it caught my eye and stopped my thoughts in their tracks when the Psalms/Now paraphrase contained the line, “God’s blessings are all about us.” Wait. What? That sounds rather self-centered and self-serving. Don’t you think? Seems to be saying it’s all about me, me, me (and you). Oh! Wait. I was looking at it from the wrong direction. It’s not that God’s blessings are all about US (you and me). It’s that God’s blessings are ALL ABOUT (all around) us. See how that can be flipped back and forth? Think about it. Then look all around. Blessed! --Ruth Gates
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