Lent 2
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence.
-- Psalm 27:12
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once suggested that all of the psalms could be grouped according to the categories of the Lord's Prayer. Psalm 27 could serve as a reflection on the petition, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." The psalm begins with an affirmation in the midst of reasons for fear that could tempt us (v. 1). But then it describes the reasons that people do fear the evildoers and adversaries who assail, slander, and rise against them (vv. 2-3). In such a world, we are tempted to abandon God. Deliverance is seen as being in the presence of God (v. 4) who will hide and conceal us from trouble (v. 5). We are invited to discover such deliverance in the practice of worship (v. 6) when we cannot only sing but also cry out to God and seek God's face (vv. 7-9a).
We pray to be delivered from the absence of God because we know that the worst evil that pursues us is the anger that causes those we count on to forsake us (vv. 9-10). It is that very fear of the destruction of relationships created by false witness that causes us to plead to know more of the way of the Lord (vv. 11-12). In the face of a deceitful world where we are tempted to abandon all hope, we are admonished to wait, be strong, and take courage but, above all, to wait for the Lord (vv. 13-14). Part of our deliverance from evil is our confidence that in time we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (v. 13).
-- Psalm 27:12
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once suggested that all of the psalms could be grouped according to the categories of the Lord's Prayer. Psalm 27 could serve as a reflection on the petition, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." The psalm begins with an affirmation in the midst of reasons for fear that could tempt us (v. 1). But then it describes the reasons that people do fear the evildoers and adversaries who assail, slander, and rise against them (vv. 2-3). In such a world, we are tempted to abandon God. Deliverance is seen as being in the presence of God (v. 4) who will hide and conceal us from trouble (v. 5). We are invited to discover such deliverance in the practice of worship (v. 6) when we cannot only sing but also cry out to God and seek God's face (vv. 7-9a).
We pray to be delivered from the absence of God because we know that the worst evil that pursues us is the anger that causes those we count on to forsake us (vv. 9-10). It is that very fear of the destruction of relationships created by false witness that causes us to plead to know more of the way of the Lord (vv. 11-12). In the face of a deceitful world where we are tempted to abandon all hope, we are admonished to wait, be strong, and take courage but, above all, to wait for the Lord (vv. 13-14). Part of our deliverance from evil is our confidence that in time we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (v. 13).
