Doesn’t the writer of this Psalm sound needy? “Teach me. Give me. Lead me.” (Psalm 119: 33)
Then again, maybe that’s the point. The psalmist is needy, and so are you, and so am I. Honest prayer, like this psalm, is one way to remember that we are dependent on God.
The psalmist recognizes, though, that we shouldn’t expect God to intervene in every moment and show us the right thing to do. Rather, our fulfillment comes from learning ways of living and making the decision to put those ideas into practice. “Teach me…the way,” says the psalmist. “Lead me in the path.” “Give me life in your ways.”
Like the psalmist, we need to learn and practice these ways in order to live into the fullness of life.
This message is excerpted from the September 2014 Women of the ELCA stewardship devotion by Audrey Riley. Today is the 12th Sunday after Pentecost. The readings are Genesis 15:1-6; Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 (semicontinuous); Psalm 33:12-22; Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23 (semicontinuous); Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40.
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