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Traveling Mercies for November 17-23
Listening for God’s Word:
Psalm 85:8-13 Merrill’s translation (read this through several times slowly…):
Listen O people in the silent chapel of your heart, and the Beloved will speak peace to you – to all who turn their hearts to love. Surely new life is at hand for those who reverence God. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet, righteousness and peace will embrace one another. Wisdom will spring up from the ground and truth will look down from the sky. Yes, the Eternal Giver will grant what is good, and the lands will yield abundantly. Mercy and compassion are Love’s way and will guide our footsteps in the way of peace.
This psalm, like so many others, is a prayer to God in the midst of difficult times. The prayer begins with lament – about all the things that have gone wrong in the land. But like so many other psalms, there comes a turning point when faith seems to just come out of the blues. The turning point begins with the word, listen. We listen because God speaks to our souls, to help us move on with our lives, freed from anything that’s getting in the way. It’s being helped to hear God’s will in our lives. When we hear the Spirit’s voice, we receive a feeling of rightness that seems to melt away our fears. It’s a feeling of peace that tells us there is a way to follow. What is that way?
It’s no accident that the first pairing is love and faithfulness. Love will be the incentive behind every expression of our attempts to be faithful. This is so different from the understanding that faithfulness is about how strictly we hold to statutes and limitations. It is readjusting our decisions and values to fit with God’s idea of what love is. Pairing righteousness and peace is about everything we do that’s in keeping with God’s shalom; which in the Hebrew is defined as peace, wholeness, health, and blessing.
The closing verse promises that God is a trailblazer – giving us footprints we can follow, day by day. What we need to remember is that a life of walking with God, is a process, and it takes practice. Listening for God in a step-by-step way, is how our lives can continually be shaped and re-shaped with God. The psalm writer declared it will feel as though love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace will kiss our lives. This morning let’s begin our day with God’s good morning kiss…
Prayer:
our love is new every morning great God of light. I lift up my heart to you – shape it with your love and peace. All day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in me the desire to listen for your voice, guiding me in the way of faithfulness. Help me to be part of your good work in the world wherever I am, and with whoever I may encounter.
This day I pray for: the people I know who are in trouble or suffering… the concerns of my community… the world, its people and leaders… the Church, its members and mission… in the name of Jesus Christ who taught us to pray… The Lord’s Prayer. AMEN.
Peace, Pastor Ed