Psalm 31:9-16 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 31:9-16 on biblegateway.com
Verse 9Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.
Verse 10For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.
Verse 11I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
Verse 12I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
Verse 13For I hear the whispering of many- terror all around!- as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.
Verse 14But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, "You are my God."
Verse 15My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
Verse 16Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
Devotion
The words of Psalm 31 could be projected into Jesus' life
experience and so they have often been. In so doing, we
can sense the level of shame and scorn that accompanied
the events of his last days. But the psalmist wrote as one
who clings to God and seeks to be faithful, not simply
as a projection onto some future Messiah. What does
it mean to be faithful in our own time and place, when
the privileged position of the church is receding into the
past? How long will it be before our memories of the
glory days "pass out of mind like one who is dead?" The
story of faithfulness does not end with Jesus. He asks
us to carry on. We are often sent forth from worship,
blessed with the words mirrored in verse 16: "May the
Lord's face shine on you and be gracious to you." What
would it look like to believe this will happen?
Prayer
God, as we prepare for Holy Week, help us to trust that
you will bring life out of death for us, and also for the
church. Our memories of the past are not our god, you are.
We are in your hands. Amen.