Good Advice

AM Psalm 37:1-18 • PM Psalm 37:19-42
Ezra 1:1-11 • 1 Cor. 16:1-9 • Matt. 12:15-21

Psalm 37 is full of good advice and reassurance. Trust in the Lord. Delight in the Lord. Be still and wait. Refrain from anger. The Lord is refuge in time of trouble. It also has a lot about what will happen to those who don’t follow the Lord. But I am more focused in this reading on me rather than on them. God will tend to them. The Psalm says so—a lot!

There are many statements of if you are blessed by the Lord you will inherit the land. (Six times!) I’m not interested in inheriting land. I do need the refuge of the Lord. I need the enveloping love of God. I need help in being still and waiting, in trusting in the Lord, and especially in refraining from anger.

The current circumstances of my life and of our world lead me to fret, to worry, to be angry. I need the “right spirit within me.” So, I will try to follow the good advice in this Psalm and keep praying a portion of Psalm 51 daily.

Open my lips O Lord and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again and
sustain me with your bountiful Spirit. Amen.

Written by Jacqui Brandli

Life-long Episcopalian, raised at St. Paul’s and after a journey of 44 years now back “home” for the past 11 years.