Reading
To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him. (Psalm 67) 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 Prayer Dear God, we praise you for your blessings around us. Amen. Our devotions are based on this Sunday’s Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). The RCL is a three-year cycle of readings telling the story of our Christian faith and corresponding to the season church calendar. On any given Sunday, we are hearing and praying and examining the same Scripture with millions of Christians around the world. In our current Year C, the Old Testament readings progress through the Prophets and have the theme of the day that it is connected to the Gospel reading. The Psalm, a song the congregation sings in response to the Old Testament reading, most often corresponds to the theme of the Hebrew Lessons and/or that of the Gospel Lesson. The lesson from the Epistles or from Acts typifies the church’s focus on the meaning of Christ for today. The Gospel lesson is connected to the season of the Church Year. This year, our gospel readings are from Luke, who writes that Jesus is the universal Savior and the perfect Son of Man. The current season of Easter brings the liturgical and biblical past into the present.
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