Psalm Reading for February 24, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

A NOTE FROM CELESTE LETCHWORTH:

As most of you know, Tom went to be with the Lord 7 months ago.

Since the lectionary cycles every 3 years, I am able to copy Tom’s SOAR studies from the archives and post them each week with our current year’s dates.

However — since Easter falls so late in 2019, this Sunday (February 24, 2019) is the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany. We haven’t had a Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany for Cycle C since way before Tom started a Lectionary Bible Study.

Psalm 37 is an acrostic Psalm.  The following is what I have copy/pasted from the SOAR archives. Here’s what Tom has said about acrostic Scripture passages:

  • Each phrase begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
  • As with any literature, something is usually lost in the translation, and we miss the literary skill of the Psalmist in his use of this particular medium.
  • Acrostic patterns also occur in four of the five songs of Lamentations, in Proverbs 31, and in Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 119, and 145.
  • This was likely a mnemonic device that aided the worshiper in memorization.

I’m sorry I can’t find anything in the archives that Tom wrote specifically about Psalm 37.

Celeste’s reflections on Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40

I see a lot of “Do This” and “Do That” and “Don’t Do This” and “Don’t Do That” in this Scripture passage:

  • Don’t fret.
  • Don’t be envious.
  • Trust in the Lord.
  • Do good.
  • Dwell.
  • Enjoy.
  • Delight in the Lord.
  • Commit your life to the Lord.
  • Trust in the Lord.
  • Rest in the Lord.
  • Wait for the Lord.
  • Don’t fret.
  • Don’t be angry.
  • Don’t be wrathful.
  • Don’t fret.

Did I miss any?

Now check out that list — anything mentioned more than once?

DON’T FRET
TRUST IN THE LORD

As Tom used to say — that’ll preach.

Reflections on verse 4:

This is my go-to verse when I am trying to discern God’s will in my life. I know that some people interpret this verse as — if I delight myself in the Lord, then he will grant me all my wishes.

But I like to think of it as — if I delight myself in the Lord, then he will put the desires in my heart that should be there in the first place. Desires that are righteous. Desires that are pure. Desires that are unselfish.

So if I’m delighting myself in the Lord, then it would stand to reason that when I come to a crossroads in my life and need to discern which way to go, then God’s way will be the way that I have a desire to go. I know that was a long run-on sentence, but I hope you get the meaning.

So my take-home for this passage for myself is:

Don’t fret.
Trust in the Lord.
Delight yourself in the Lord.

What is going to be your take-home for this passage? There’s so much here in this one psalm, it’s hard to choose.

PHOTOS:

"VB-Psalm 37 4-5 V2" by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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