Devotion for Monday, March 9

Lessons from the Daily Lectionary – Monday, March 9, 2009

Psalms 5, 35; Jeremiah 1:11-19; Romans 1:1-15; John 4:27-42

Meditation: “Give ear to my prayer, O-o-o-o Lord -- consi-der my medi-tation.” Back in the mid-1970s, I learned a song that used the opening words to Psalm 5. I can still sing it at a moment’s notice today. A beautiful, haunting, beseeching melody, it had one imaging oneself in the presence of God the Royal Ruler. Purple robe, a fine rug leading to the throne, nevertheless it didn’t leave one with fear. Rather, its sense was to give one a hope of friendship with God. The song ended: “O Lord in the morning will I lift up my prayer, unto you and will look up.”

Psalm 5 is a morning prayer. It is a prayer that starts one’s day -- not with your hair mussed, bathrobe on, a cup of joe in hand and the morning paper. Quite to the contrary, Psalm 5 calls a person to go out one's front door for drink of fresh air. It’s a springtime prayer. It invites one to greet the day with imagery from of a light wooded path where the sunlight is able to reach to forest’s floor to coax out flowers and busily engaged furry creatures.

Perhaps, this is too much of a romantic picture, medieval, knights of the roundtable and the like. Yet, I would not be a good conduit of the scriptures if I didn’t point out the newness of the breaking day which is so often the promise of morning prayer. Psalm 5 has us starting our day with God. Its fresh picture invites us to lift up our heads. It asks us to put on our own royal countenance and to go into the day with a glad heart and with the courage of God's own sending.

May the spirit of this prayer begin your day well, today.

Prayer: Creator God, we have been blessed with a wonderful spring morning, today. The change of time has us up an hour earlier than last Monday. The daffodils and tulips are breaking the ground that was covered with snow seven days earlier. May this good newness of spring lend its hope to us. May its beauty dignify our step as we go to our workplaces or activities.

When Jesus came into our world, he was a new creator. He life and offering has brought about a new creation, where life keeps pushing forward, undergirded by your gracious purposes. Help us to walk the ways that Jesus walked. Even if our paths are highways of asphalt and concrete, let us notice the wild flower that breaks through in the road’s crack. Let us carry that beauty and life with us in our souls today, and to be a blessing to someone else. Amen.