Easter 2
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
-- Psalm 16:8
The author of Acts quoted this psalm extensively (Acts 2:25-28) and declared that David was speaking of Christ in this psalm. This is an audacious claim that throws our concept of time into confusion. Yet it was similar to the assertion of Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:4, that the "rock" that provided the children of Israel with water in the wilderness was Christ. It was also the claim of John 1:1 ff that the Word that became flesh was also at the beginning of time. In all of these examples, no one was suggesting that Jesus appeared like some astronaut from outer space. Rather, they were saying that God was present in Christ before God was manifest in the body of Jesus. What the New Testament writers seemed to be suggesting was that in Jesus they had recognized the Spirit of God that had been manifest in less concrete, but no less real, ways in their past. In Jesus' being raised from the dead, it became clear that the boundaries of death and time could not contain Christ. Therefore the psalmist could say, "I keep the Lord before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved," and later generations, who had experienced God's power in Jesus, could also believe that the Lord of the psalmist was their Lord who could not be defeated by death nor contained by time.
-- Psalm 16:8
The author of Acts quoted this psalm extensively (Acts 2:25-28) and declared that David was speaking of Christ in this psalm. This is an audacious claim that throws our concept of time into confusion. Yet it was similar to the assertion of Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:4, that the "rock" that provided the children of Israel with water in the wilderness was Christ. It was also the claim of John 1:1 ff that the Word that became flesh was also at the beginning of time. In all of these examples, no one was suggesting that Jesus appeared like some astronaut from outer space. Rather, they were saying that God was present in Christ before God was manifest in the body of Jesus. What the New Testament writers seemed to be suggesting was that in Jesus they had recognized the Spirit of God that had been manifest in less concrete, but no less real, ways in their past. In Jesus' being raised from the dead, it became clear that the boundaries of death and time could not contain Christ. Therefore the psalmist could say, "I keep the Lord before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved," and later generations, who had experienced God's power in Jesus, could also believe that the Lord of the psalmist was their Lord who could not be defeated by death nor contained by time.
