Psalm 5
Listen to my words, O Lord;
attend to my sighing.
Listen to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I plead my case to you and watch.
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil will not sojourn with you.
The boastful will not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house;
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in awe of you.
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
For there is no truth in their mouths;
their hearts are destruction;
their throats are open graves;
they flatter with their tongues.
Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of their many transgressions, cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
so that those who love your name may exult in you.
For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you cover them with favor as with a shield.
John 12:27-36
“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light is in you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”
After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.
Devotion “I See Grace”
I found myself wondering about when Jesus might come again as I prepared to write this devotion about Jesus heading to the cross. Perhaps Jesus might again say to God-the-Creator, “save me from this hour,” seriously, this time, is it really worthwhile? Or perhaps Jesus is waiting, eager to spring into action to save us, again. Perhaps the trumpets and cymbals will sound out and we will look up and somehow see him coming.
Or perhaps our thoughts are better kept on here and now, on what we know, on what we can learn, on what we can do.
What we know is that God hates evildoers (Pss 5:4-6), those who deceive, and boast, and lie.
What we know is that God’s steadfast love will protect us (Pss 5:7), and with the Lord’s help and our humility and awe we can be safe, regardless of the evildoers.
In the passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us to believe in the light and to become children of light. And there are days, my brothers and sisters, when that is hard. I have read that phrase as something like: be positive, be cheerful, be light-hearted, be patient and kind… all the good things.
Perhaps, circling back to Psalm 5, being a child of light means to clearly see the evildoers and hear the boasts and lies, and pray – perhaps every morning – for God’s protection and God’s steadfast love. To stay the course of believing not by trying to find a “bright side” but by knowing, deep in our hearts, that Goodness has already won because Jesus walked to the Cross and died and rose again out of grace and love.
Prayer
Holy God, help me pray every morning
Hear my voice
Incline your ear to me
And soften my fear
Breathe life into every part of me
Amen.
Rachel Ann Russell
I See Grace by Micah Tyler