Good Morning, Lord!
I Am Baptized
And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you
will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38 ESV)
Make the sign of the cross as you say, “In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
A Morning Prayer
O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I turn
my thoughts to You to remember Your love and faithfulness as I begin a new day.
Thank you for keeping me safely through the night. Please let me recognize
today as a blessing from You, and the events of the day as divine appointments
to exercise my faith in You. Please give me peace and joy and help me to live
in such a way that my attitude and actions reflect that I am your child;
adopted into Your family through Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen.
I Believe …
I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He
has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and
all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and
shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and
all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support
this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me
from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and
mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to
thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.
Bible Reading – Psalm
7
A Shiggaion[a] of
David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a
Benjaminite.
7 O Lord my God, in you do
I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
3 O Lord my God, if
I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my friend[b] with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my friend[b] with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
6 Arise, O Lord, in your
anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.
8 The Lord judges the
peoples;
judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,[c]
O righteous God!
10 My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,[c]
O righteous God!
10 My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
12 If a man[d] does
not repent, God[e] will whet
his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
15 He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
he has bent and readied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
15 He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
17 I will give to
the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.[1]
and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.[1]
I am really good at knowing exactly what to say when
someone argues with me. The problem is I know exactly what to say long after
the argument is over and I am replaying the conversation in my head. Has that
ever happened to you? “Oh! I should have said this!” Sometimes harsh and
confrontational words stick in our heads and weigh down our hearts. We try to
process them, try to answer them in a way that sweeps them aside. Sometimes we
can and sometimes we cannot. When we cannot, those memories can swirl around in
our minds – a form of meditation that is not particularly helpful – and trouble
our spirits.
Apparently, David had such a conversation with a man
named Cush. Cush was from the Tribe of Benjamin, the same tribe as King Saul –
who sought to kill David, and whom David eventually replaced as King of Israel.
That conversation is the context for this Psalm, which is called a Shiggaion;
another word we do not know, although some argue that it means a lament. David’s
mind, heart, and spirit are troubled (he feels he has been wronged!) and he
takes the matter to the Lord.
The first verse teaches us where to turn in our troubles,
and we will end on this verse for today. “O Lord, my God, in you do I take
refuge; save me from my pursuers and deliver me…” When you are pursued, when
you are treated unjustly, when you face conflict and troubles – call upon the
Lord Jesus who was pursued by the religious rulers of his day, who was
crucified unjustly, who faced conflict and troubles in the confidence that his
Father would bring him through death to resurrection.
Question for Meditation
What does this reading teach you about Jesus, what He said
and did, or what He wants His followers to believe? What does it teach you
about God’s love and forgiveness?
What does this reading lead you to be thankful for?
What behavior, thought, or attitude does this reading
challenge? What sin does it lead you to confess?
How might you pray for God to have a richer impact on your
life through this reading?
Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer
The Third
Petition: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
O God, Your will is done even without our prayers, but we
pray that it may be done among us also. Please break and hinder every evil plan
and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want
us to hallow Your name or let Your kingdom come. Strengthen and keep us firm in
Your Word and faith until we die. Let Your good and gracious will be done.
Amen.
Prayer
Pray for the
government and all who are in authority.
Pray that God
grants wisdom, integrity, courage, and safety to all our leaders, to police,
firefighters, health care professionals, and all who work for the public good.
Benediction
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 5:23 ESV)
[1] English
Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers.
Comments