Songs for Lent

Song 18: Lost

March 17/Third Tuesday of Lent Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths.Guide me in your truth and teach me. ~ Ps 25.4-5 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single (or married) man in possession of a car, and in want of directions, will not ask for guidance.  Of course, now that we have…

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Songs for Lent

Song 17: Beyond the Fevered Strain

March 16/Third Monday of Lent As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God.Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.  When shall I go and behold the face of God? ~ Ps 42.2-3 Sometimes, when we pause for a moment and we’re not busy being, well, busy, we experience a deep…

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Songs for Lent

Song 16: Forgiveness from A to Z

March 14/Second Saturday of Lent For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. ~ Ps 103.11-12 Forgiveness is out of fashion these days, viewed in many quarters as a sign of weakness. Witness…

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Songs for Lent

Song 15: Dark Inscrutable Workmanship

March 13/Second Friday of Lent When the LORD called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them,  He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave. ~ Ps 105.16-17 The book assigned for the high school Bible History course I took was The Book of the Acts of God (or as we referred…

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Songs for Lent

Song 14: Down to the River

March 12/Second Thursday of Lent He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. ~ Ps 1.3 Having grown up in a coastal city, I have often experienced the presence of God by the water.  The powerful swells that form far out in the ocean; the froth-flecked waves that…

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Songs for Lent

Song 13: Come What May

March 11/Second Wednesday of Lent Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God. ~ Ps 31.6 You step into the center of the circle — full of doubt, if you are like me — close your eyes, and let yourself fall into the arms of your encircling colleagues.  How many of us have…

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Songs for Lent

Song 12: Keeping Up Appearances

March 10/Second Tuesday of Lent  “Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my covenant with your mouth,  Though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you?To him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.” ~ Ps 50.16-17, 23 Lives there a better exemplar of hypocrisy than Eddie Haskell of the old “Leave It…

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Songs for Lent

Song 11: Help! I Need Somebody

March 9/Second Monday of Lent Remember not against us the iniquities of the past; may your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low. ~ Ps 79.8-9 I have certainly had moments in my life where my heart has felt hard and small and boxed in.  I have felt stuck in a place of pain or anxiety that I…

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Songs for Lent

Song 10: Law-Abiders

March 7/First Saturday of Lent Blessed are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD.Blessed are they who observe his decrees, who seek him with all their heart. ~ Ps. 119.1-2 Who among us can honestly look in the mirror and say that her way is blameless, or that he truly walks in the law of…

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Songs for Lent

Song 9: Just Deserts

March 6/First Friday of Lent If you, O LORD, mark iniquities, LORD, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered. ~ Ps 130.3-4 For some time now — for too long a time — one of the ruling dynamics in our civic discourse has been the “gotcha” mode.  We revel in calling one another out,…

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