Wednesday August 7 Pentecost 11
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Psalm 119 Part 5
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Each of the 176 verses is a variation on the theme of what it means to follow God’s call to justice, using terms such as “command”,”law”, “word”, “statute”, and the like. The psalm is arranged in 22 groups of eight verses—one group for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Within a group, each of the eight verses starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the groups are in Hebrew alphabetical order. So the first group of eight verses all start with A, the second group all start with B and so on. The first seven verses mirror the seven days of creation, with the eighth sometimes pointing to the next group. This very careful construction mirrors God’s creating the universe by overcoming chaos with order.
In the human world, justice, dignity and fulfilment – the outcomes of justice—are the human expressions of order. Thus the human world and the rest of creation are united in the same foundation. Today’s three sections begin with the letters M, N, and S (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “M” and so on.
Judges 7.19-8.12 What’s Judges about?
The Midianites are confused by the sudden noise and Israel has a mighty victory, given by God and not by their own strength. Gideon takes revenge on all who had refused to support him. From our perspective this seems unnecessarily vindictive, but in the ancient context Gideon would have been seen as enacting the consequences of their not trusting God’s care for them.
John 1.29-42 What’s John about?
John identifies Jesus as the one on whom God’s Spirit rests and who is also the “lamb” of God, the animal which symbolized the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. John sees Jesus as the one through whom God will act, through death and resurrection, to provide escape from collapse for the whole human race, and indeed, for the whole cosmos.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom.
Renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.