Introduction

The Congregation Council at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., where I am serving as interim pastor, opens its monthly meetings with devotions. These are the thoughts for the January 2010 meeting. The Psalm is the one appointed for the upcoming Sunday, the Second Sunday of Epiphany.

Reading

⁵Your steadfast love, O LORD,
extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
⁶Your righteousness is like
the mighty mountains,
your judgments are like the great deep;
you save humans and animals alike,
O LORD.

⁷How precious is your steadfast love,
O God!
All people may take refuge
in the shadow of your wings.
⁸They feast on the abundance
of your house,
and you give them drink
from the river of your delights.

⁹For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
¹⁰O continue your steadfast love
to those who know you,
and your salvation to the upright of heart!

Meditation

One of the ways that the Psalms can help us in our devotional life is to train us to experience God with all of our senses. This helps to add feelings and experiences to the thoughts we have about him. It’s a good antidote to the traditions of our faith that tend to talk about God from the head more than from the heart.

This passage from Psalm 36 is the passage we will read together in worship this coming weekend. And if we listen to it quietly and carefully, we can picture God at work in our lives.

First off, God’s love is something, perhaps the tallest tree or the highest mountain we can imagine. It’s so tall it reaches to the heavens, piercing the clouds.

Then we hear how his righteousness is like the Himalaya Mountains and his judgment like the Marianas Trench—higher and deeper than we can climb or dive.

God’s love embraces all people, covering us like a mother hen’s wings sheltering her brood of chicks. It gives us protection, warmth, security, and comfort. And then we hear how his love is like a boundless buffet and a river fresh and clean for drinking.

The life God gives us is like a fountain, like light that cuts through the deepest darkness.

It’s an amazing vision, a picture of God that can give us reassurance, hope, and joy. And in a time when we can become bogged down by despair and bad news and burdens and depression, it’s full-body experience of God that touches our hearts, heals our spirits, and excites our minds—all at once.

Discussion

• What pictures of God give you comfort?
• What can our congregation do to help people experience God with body and heart and soul?
• What is God calling us to do so that “all people make take refuge in the shadow of [his] wings?”
• Is there a special role for us, as leaders, to take on in this mission?

Prayer

Lord God, we are thankful for the ways you touch our lives with your love and grace. Help us to open ourselves to know you with every part of our selves and to share this experience with others; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.