Thursday
at Prime [1]
Psalm 22 (23)
The Lord leads, shepherds me
and I shall want for nothing.
He has set me in a place of pasture.
He has brought me up
to the waters of refreshment:
He has restored my soul.
He has been my guide
on the paths of justice,
for His own name’s sake.
For though I should walk
in the midst of the shadows of death,
I will fear no evil, for You are at my side.
Your rod and your staff,
they are my comfort.
You have prepared a table in my sight,
against my those that afflict me.
You have lavished oil upon my head;
and the chalice of my elation, how noble it is.
And your mercy will follow me
all the days of my life,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
for length of days.
We all stand, subjects of the Most Holy Trinity’s sovereignty over heaven and earth as Lord and God of all. And yet, as we look at our lot as servants of the Almighty God, we find that we are ruled not as serfs by an overlord but by a Father, who loves us with tenderness; His Son, who is a shepherd to us; and their Spirit, who is our advocate. We are ruled by love. What more could we want?
As we daily enthrone the Lord as the ruler of our lives, we are led to an understanding of our faith that is not servile submission to the rod but trusting surrender to and indulgence in pure love. And we are carried along by this love: revived, should we tire; protected, should we fear; guided, should we become lost; and rewarded with eternal life, should we turn to the Lord for His mercy.
So it is that Jesus Christ is a shepherd to His wayward sheep, loving us with the tenderness of the Father’s love and giving the Holy Spirit as our guide. That He has laid down His life for His sheep is eternal testament to the love of God, for in His sacrifice we are freed from the jaws of the enemy, and in His rising He shepherds us into His eternal pastures. His staff serves to correct us when we wander, so that not one of us will be lost to the shadows and in fear and trembling never return, nor that we should lose the welcome that has been prepared for us in the house of the Lord.
For we enter the house of the Lord as honoured guests, and how noble and precious the welcome: the unction of God’s grace lavished upon us; the nourishment of food that strengthens us against our enemies; and the ecstatic taste of the liquor of divine love that enraptures the soul and consigns even thought of the foe back to the shadows from whence they came. So the start of our days and their length is to be found in this wonderful pasture of God’s grace and love. May we abide all our days here, then, and be led as sheep by the one true shepherd, the Lord.
at Prime [2, 3]
Psalm 71 (72)
O God, impart your judgments to the king,
and to the king’s son, your justice,
to govern Your people with justice,
and Your poor with judgment.
Let the mountains receive peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall judge the poor among the people,
and He shall save the children of the poor;
and He shall humble their oppressor.
And He shall endure with the sun
and before the moon,
through all generations.
He shall fall like rain upon wool,
and as gentle showers upon the earth.
In His days justice shall dawn,
and an abundance of peace
until the moon is no more.
And He shall rule from sea to sea,
and from the spring to the ends of the earth.
Before him the Ethiopians fall,
and his enemies shall lick the dust.
The kings of Tharsis and the islands
shall make offerings of gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring tribute.
And all the kings of the earth shall adore him;
all nations shall serve him;
for he shall deliver the poor from the mighty,
and the needy that had no helper.
He shall spare the poor and needy,
And he shall save the souls of the poor.
From usury and iniquity he will redeem them,
and their names shall be honourable in his sight.
And he shall live and to him be given the gold of Arabia,
for they shall adore him forever,
they shall bless him all the day.
And the firmament shall be upon the earth,
upon the mountain tops,
above Lebanon shall its fruits be exalted,
and they that dwell in the city shall flourish
like grass upon the earth.
May his name be blessed for ever more,
his name abides before the sun,
and in him all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed;
all nations shall give him glory.
Blessed be the Lord to God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous deeds;
and blessed be the His majestic name forever;
may the whole world be filled with His majesty.
Amen, amen.
May our days be governed by the judgments of our King; our every word and action bring forth His peace. He has given us a lesson in love, a pattern for us to follow, to bring peace before us wherever His Word is sown and love before the mention of His Name. For just as Solomon, for whom this Psalm is titled, was a peace-maker, so too we, through Christ who established universal peace by the wood of the Cross, are called to bear this peace from the mountaintops to the world – a peace that comes about only through reconciliation; a reconciliation that is affected by the love of God and embraced by living under the dewfall of His judgments. So may our lives radiate His peace by works of love that bring men to God who dwells within us.
And God dwells within us because we stand before Him, here, in poverty of spirit: emptied of self and ready to receive the outpouring of His grace. And from here should we proceed, inspired by His grace, not made proud by our encounter with the divine, but humbled by it. The hood of God’s grace that covers your head as you depart this place is the seal of His love, the mantle of humility, the easy yoke of His law. Upon its wool rains His peace; an abundance of peace for all the world. And we shall be as gentle as His rain and take the richness of our poverty even to the least of His people. So shall the rule of the Lord be established among the peoples of the earth, not by the tools of the oppressor but by emulating His own gentle humility and love of justice.
Through our witness shall the knees of the world bend to the Lord; through the testimony of our word and deed that we have been ransomed from our captor, sin and death, and restored to the eternal Lord of love and life. We that were poor have been ennobled beyond our own meager worth. We that had no advocate have found our champion in God Himself. With our sins laid before the throne of judgment, and the life sentence of eternal death imminent and deserved, we have been acquitted and absolved, by no action of our own other than faith in Jesus Christ.
And ours is no blind faith or mere superstition. Our faith is in the One God who alone has wrought marvellous deeds. Our fathers witnessed that day when the firmament descended upon the earth, when God’s eternal Word took to Himself our flesh to make it again honourable in His sight. They witnessed the conviction, at men’s hands, of the Judge of all men. They witnessed His arms outstretched on the Cross: that wondrous sight of God embracing death to destroy it forever. They witnessed His flesh, His beating heart, pierced and yet alive, to give life to all who make His sacrifice their own. What our fathers saw, we have received in its entirety, so that what our eyes may not see, our hearts might cleave to in faith: a faith that enters us into the eternality of the divine nature, even as we live and breathe in this mortal world. For Christ has died once for all our sins– cleave, then, to His mercy and subdue the world outside these walls with His love.
So we sing, ‘Amen’ – so let the truth of our faith be told through our lives of prayer and work, and the glory of God fill the earth with a peace that will unite all men in His love, for the glory of His Holy Name and the coming of His Kingdom. Amen, amen!