Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Manna for Today: Psalm 81



          Since we are unable to meet in person and most of us due to social distancing mandates we will all eventually begin feeling farther and farther apart. In an attempt to if not draw us closer to one another but perhaps closer to the one in whom all community is found and in an act of faith I am committing to writing a few thoughts on scripture each day. I do not promise profound theological wisdom. I just promise prayerful thoughts, some questions and a prayer that will come out of my daily study of a Psalm. It is my hope that this will be manna provided to all of us by God. So I am calling these daily thoughts, “Manna for Today.”

Psalm 81:1-16
Key Verse: 81:10 NRSV

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it”

In the middle of it all we are reminded of the daily provision of God in the desert, mana and quail for today and water from a rock. God is the provider of what we need. The Psalm says, “open your mouth wide,” in order to be filled and to be satisfied, we must first turn to God in a posture ready to receive what God has for us. Come to God mouths wide open like a baby bird trusting, that with which we will be filled will be exactly what we need, will fill us and satisfy our longings, our desires, be the precise thing we need to make it through.

Things to Think on:
Take time, now, to join the Psalmist in praise to God for all the things God has done. Ponder all ways God has been there, been your strength, your healer, your provider.
Pause to listen to God. Sit in stillness so you can hear what the Lord. God has to say to you.
Do you find it hard to listen to God? In what ways are you tempted to follow your own counsel today? To turn away from the ways of the Lord to follow the ways of the world around us? How can you better trust God today?

A Prayer for Today
Lord, God in times like these it is hard to trust you. It is hard to give you praise when the world around us swells with chaos and darkness. Help me to turn to you, to listen to you, to walk in your ways. Help me to remember you and what you have done even as I work to trust you through today. I turn to you know expecting to be filled, knowing you will give me all your good things and what you give will satisfy.  - Amen




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