April 8/Fifth Tuesday of Lent Hide not your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily. ~ Ps 102.2 Whatever the source – instability in the world or unrest in our individual lives – all of us experience what the psalmist calls days of distress. When…
Song 29: Laying the Table
April 7/Fifth Monday of Lent You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ~ Ps 23.5 Setting a lovely table is a way of honoring one’s guests. Whether it is a small Ikea table laid for two with simple utensils, humble dinnerware, and a posy of wildflowers,…
Song 28: Testing, Testing
April 5/Fourth Saturday of Lent O searcher of heart and soul, O just God. ~Ps 7.9 The historic Southeastern city where I live is defined by harmonious and varied streetscapes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architecture. The private homes and public buildings — Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, many of them graced with stately porticos or gracious piazzas — were built centuries…
Song 27: Something Wicked This Way Comes
April 4/Fourth Friday of Lent The LORD confronts the evildoers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. ~ Ps 34.17, 19 Does God really “confront the evildoers”? Or in the concrete Hebrew expression, is “the face of the LORD against” those who…
Song 26: In God We Trust?
April 3/Fourth Thursday of Lent They made a calf at Horeb and worshiped a cast image.They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. ~ Ps 106.19-20 Today, let us walk for a moment in the sandals of those infamous children of Israel who fashioned a golden calf. Life was hard, the future was…
Song 25: All in the Family
April 2/Fourth Wednesday of Lent The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. ~ Ps 145.8-9 I’ve probably glossed over this simple verse dozens of times without really stopping to think about its implications. “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.” …
Song 24: Peace Like a River
April 1/Fourth Tuesday of Lent There is a river whose streams gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High.God is in its midst, it shall not be disturbed; God will help it at the break of dawn. ~ Ps 46.5-6 Peace is hard to come by these days. Whether it comes in the form of environmental…
Song 23: Morning Has Broken
March 31/Fourth Monday of Lent For his anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his good will.At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing. ~ Ps 30.5 For most of us, worries cluster most densely at night, descending like locusts in the darkness. Along with our thoughts, with only the void of sleep in front of us and…
Song 22: No Stain Unturned
March 29/Third Saturday of Lent Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. ~ Ps 51.4 Confession time: I love doing laundry. The sorting, the soaking, the washing and drying and folding: for me, these actions are meditative, reassuring, even relaxing (I might not have said this some years ago when I was in the throes…
Song 21: Hearing Aid
March 28/Third Friday of Lent “If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways, I would feed them with the best of wheat,and with honey from the rock I would fill them.” ~ Ps 81.14, 17 It is a longstanding joke in my family that my father began to lose his hearing around the time that…