Monday, March 4, 2013

Monday, March 4
Jeremiah 7:1-15
Psalms 77, 79, 80
Romans 4:1-12
John 7:14-36
“…make your face to shine upon us that we may be saved.”
- Psalm 77

The psalmist’s cry in the midst of his frustration and despair, the chorus of the psalm, is that the Lord God would shine His face upon the people in order that they might be delivered and restored from their troubles.  The image that is written on my heart when I hear this refrain is one of an adoring father looking lovingly at his young child.  He is filled with so much love and joy that his face shines, and, in return, the child’s face shines, too.
The psalmist does not come to God with a list of requests, as I so often do.  He does not ask God for this or that.  The psalmist reminds us that all we truly need is to look to the face of our adoring Father.

“The Lord bless you, and keep you:
The Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace.”

Laura Nachtigall
Faculty, Holy Spirit Episcopal School