Passion/Palm Sunday
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
-- Psalm 118:19
This is traditionally known as one of the "praise psalms" that was sung at Passover time. It is assumed that this may have been the psalm that Jesus and his disciples sang as they concluded their meal and went to the Mount of Olives. As such, one can picture how this psalm would have given Jesus strength as he began this final journey. Listen to several of the verses while recalling events in Jesus' life. Jesus' central message was the steadfast love of God. "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!" His wilderness experience had confirmed for him that in all circumstances he needed to depend on the faithfulness of God (vv. 5-9). His faith was severely tested by the behavior of other humans. "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in mortals" (v. 8). When he experienced the assistance of Simon of Cyrene, did he remember the words of the psalm, "I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me" (v. 13)? Jesus' willingness to enter through the gates of righteousness even through suffering (vv. 19-20) permitted him to hear God's response of salvation to the stone that the builders were rejecting (vv. 21-22). Because he trusted in God's ultimate saving power even in the face of death, he could join the psalmist in saying, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Even the earlier palm-strewn path of his entry into Jerusalem could have reminded him of the psalmist's words, "Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you." It is a worthy psalm for Christians to sing on Palm Sunday.
-- Psalm 118:19
This is traditionally known as one of the "praise psalms" that was sung at Passover time. It is assumed that this may have been the psalm that Jesus and his disciples sang as they concluded their meal and went to the Mount of Olives. As such, one can picture how this psalm would have given Jesus strength as he began this final journey. Listen to several of the verses while recalling events in Jesus' life. Jesus' central message was the steadfast love of God. "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!" His wilderness experience had confirmed for him that in all circumstances he needed to depend on the faithfulness of God (vv. 5-9). His faith was severely tested by the behavior of other humans. "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in mortals" (v. 8). When he experienced the assistance of Simon of Cyrene, did he remember the words of the psalm, "I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me" (v. 13)? Jesus' willingness to enter through the gates of righteousness even through suffering (vv. 19-20) permitted him to hear God's response of salvation to the stone that the builders were rejecting (vv. 21-22). Because he trusted in God's ultimate saving power even in the face of death, he could join the psalmist in saying, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Even the earlier palm-strewn path of his entry into Jerusalem could have reminded him of the psalmist's words, "Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you." It is a worthy psalm for Christians to sing on Palm Sunday.
