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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Daily readings for Thursday, November 19, 2009

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• Morning: Psalms 143; 147:12-20
• First Reading : Nehemiah 9:1-15 (16-25)
• First Reading : 1 Maccabees 3:42-60 (Alternate)
• Second Reading : Revelation 21:22-22:5
• Gospel : Matthew 18:1-9
• Evening: Psalms 81; 116

Morning: Psalms 143; 147:12-20

Psalm 143

1Hear my prayer, O LORD;

give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness;

answer me in your righteousness.

2Do not enter into judgment with your servant,

for no one living is righteous before you.
3For the enemy has pursued me,

crushing my life to the ground,

making me sit in darkness like those long dead.

4Therefore my spirit faints within me;

my heart within me is appalled.
5I remember the days of old,

I think about all your deeds,

I meditate on the works of your hands.

6I stretch out my hands to you;

my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah
7Answer me quickly, O LORD;

my spirit fails.

Do not hide your face from me,

or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.

8Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning,

for in you I put my trust.

Teach me the way I should go,

for to you I lift up my soul.
9Save me, O LORD, from my enemies;

I have fled to you for refuge.

10Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God.

Let your good spirit lead me

on a level path.
11For your name’s sake, O LORD, preserve my life.

In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.

12In your steadfast love cut off my enemies,

and destroy all my adversaries,

for I am your servant.

Psalm 147:12-20

12Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

13For he strengthens the bars of your gates;

he blesses your children within you.

14He grants peace within your borders;

he fills you with the finest of wheat.

15He sends out his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

16He gives snow like wool;

he scatters frost like ashes.

17He hurls down hail like crumbs —

who can stand before his cold?

18He sends out his word, and melts them;

he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.

19He declares his word to Jacob,

his statutes and ordinances to Israel.

20He has not dealt thus with any other nation;

they do not know his ordinances.

Praise the Lord!

But this is also worship. We are very, very good at celebrating the joy of the LORD. We are less good at confession.

Nehemiah 9:1-15 (16-25)

1Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. 2 Then those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. 3 They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth part of the day, and for another fourth they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.

Within the Reformed tradition, confession is usually led by the preacher and is corporate. We sit in the Calvanistic crouch and silently meet with God. We do not have the ritual of confession, penance (and the associated indlugences) that occurs in the Roman Church. And at times we forget that our forefathers wrote their prayers down. The Passage from Nehemiah continues with a prayer by which the faults and wrongdoings of multiple generations of Isreal are recounted.
For in the end er are not perfect. We should not pretend to be perfect. We are seeking mercy.