February 28/Second Wednesday of Lent Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God. ~ Ps 31.6 The hungry infant wails and then waits, listening for his mother’s footfall as she answers his cry. The toddler teeters, gathers her confidence, and flings herself off the side of the swimming pool into the waiting…
Song 12: Keeping Up Appearances
February 27/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 Today, God takes us to task for the sin of hypocrisy. The vehemence of…
Song 11: The Lowcountry
February 26/Second Monday of Lent May your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low. Let the prisoners’ sighing come before you; with your great power free those doomed to death. ~ Ps 79.8, 13 “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” begins the well-known African-American spiritual. It would be an apt title for Psalm 79, which is…
Song 10: All In
February 24/First Saturday of Lent Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart. ~ Ps 119.2 In an age where phrases like “friends with benefits” and “hooking up” describe a culture in which relationships are seen as disposable — transactions rather than genuine engagements — the notion of a whole-hearted commitment to another person…
Song 9: Rough Waters
February 23/First Friday of Lent Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; LORD, hear my voice! ~ Ps 130.1-2 The only time I have truly been in peril on the sea was years ago when, on a solo outing in the family Sunfish off the beach, I capsized. As the sail filled with water and the waves…
Song 8: All We Like Sheep
February 22/First Thursday of Lent The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. ~ Ps 23.1 The opening verse of Psalm 23 is simplicity itself, especially in its original Hebrew, which conveys ineffable comfort in four brief words: Adonai ro’i / lo echsar (to hear Leonard Bernstein’s haunting musical interpretation of this verse in his “Chichester Psalms,” click here:…
Song 7: Have a Heart
February 21/First Wednesday of Lent A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. ~ Ps 51.10 I first met this verse — which has served as a touchstone for me throughout my life — as a young Episcopalian choir girl. Perhaps we were rehearsing Charles Wesley’s “O for a heart to praise my…
Song 5: Addressing the Lord
February 19/First Monday of Lent Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart find favor before you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. ~ Ps 19.15 Addressing the Lord What does it mean for “the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart” to “find favor” before God? To put it another way, what…
Song 4: Speak Up
February 17/Saturday after Ash Wednesday Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you; be gracious to me, O LORD, for to you do I cry all day long. ~ Ps. 86.1-3 When my children were in elementary school, one of the principal goals that undergirded…
Song 6: Body Language
February 20/First Tuesday of Lent The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears to their cry for help. When the righteous cry out, the LORD hears, and from all their troubles he rescues them. Near is the LORD to the brokenhearted, and the crushed in spirit he saves. ~ Ps 34.15, 17, 18 Body Language We…