Loading more...
Lawson: Black Lives Matter a Religious Movement
The Rev. James Lawson says the Black Lives Matter movement is the most important nonviolent campaign Read More
The Upper Room is here for you in these anxious times. Click Here
Rosemary D. Gooden | Read Psalm 119:137-144
Disciplines is available in a variety of formats: print, digital, and print/digital combo packages. A digital subscription includes access to author bios, the ability to comment, and audio lectio.
Sign Up TodayIn this prayer of lament, the longest psalm in the Psalter, righteous is a key word and is repeated five times. The psalmist points us not only to God who is righteous but also to God’s justice. Like the prophet Habakkuk, the psalmist complains to God but in a different...
Lord, you are my song and my praise: All my hope comes from God. Lord, you are my song and my praise: You are the wellspring of life. Amen.
Habakkuk stands aghast at the “destruction and violence” all around and wonders how justice never seems to conquer. At the end of the reading, God contrasts the proud, whose spirit “is not right in them,” with the righteous who live by faith. The psalmist delights in God’s righteousness and in the commandments of God; however, he admits that “I am small and despised.” The psalmist’s “trouble and anguish” appear in Second Thessalonians also, but here the “persecutions and the af ictions” endured by the faithful serve a particular end: They stand as signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel reading Jesus tells Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house,” which reminds us that the righteous who live by faith are not necessarily the socially or religiously acceptable.
• Read Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4. What situations in your life and world cause you to cry out to God, “How long?”?
• Read Psalm 119:137-144. Who have you known who trusts God implicitly? How has that person’s example helped you in the past? How might you let it help you in the future?
• Read 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12. How will you offer Christ’s peace to someone you meet today?
• Read Luke 19:1-10. Jesus’ interaction caused Zacchaeus to trust God and straighten out his life. Where and with whom might God be leading you to share with others the heart of Christ?
Respond by posting a prayer.
Compassion is the heartbeat of humanity. When we are living in our truest, deepest selves we know how to care and connect.”
