Daily Devotion for May 29, 2010
Prayers
Scripture
Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Prayer of Thanks for God's Creation
O Lord God of Israel and God of the nations, you are the only God in heaven above or the earth below. I walk before you with all my heart. I bless your name in the morning when I rise and in the evening when I sleep, and all the day when your creation fills my eye. Bless me to remember you this day; when I see and hear the thousand miracles of your creation, let me see them anew, recalling that you have made them, and no other; that I may live in your presence among the common miracles I take for granted. Through Christ I pray,
Prayer based on Psalm 1
Heavenly Father, who has given us the gift of thy law, so that we might know our sin, and thy Son, that we might be forgiven where we fall short. Give me the grace to remember your holy Word, when my surroundings tempt me to confusion and weakness, that I might more nearly approach true obedience to your will. Help me to resist the arguments of the ungodly; let me not be deceived by false beauty; and let me never replace the truth which you have put into my heart with the clever words of men. Through Christ I pray,
Community of Prayer
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be among the community of all who pray in the name of Christ this morning, and remain among us always.
Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.
2 Samuel 22:1-16
David's Song of Praise (Part 1)
David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
Notes on the Scripture
This part of David's hymn has two themes. First, God is like a great rock who protects the Israelites from armed enemies. There was almost no such thing as "peace", especially over wide areas or for long periods of time. This would appear for the first time in the era of the Pax Romana, the relative peace and stability brought by the Roman Empire, during which Christ was born.
Second, God is like the most powerful forces of nature, which is to say, greater than the most powerful forces known. People of the day lived and died at the whims of natural phenomena. David's comparisons of God to lightning and the sea is the greatest tribute he can make to God's strength.
The relationship of the Hebrews to God, shown here by David's song, was direct and crude. But the nature of life at the time -- brutish, short, violent and unpredictable -- simply was not ready for the New Covenant.
