According to Your Steadfast Love Remember Me

This meditation is based on a passage for April 12, 2011 in the Daily Lectionary Year 1 from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1993).

Text: Psalm 25

Reflection and Question: A compelling aspect of this psalm is the way it acknowledges that although we may often have enemies, we should not ask God to smite them or hurt them. Instead, we ask for protection, guidance, mercy, forgiveness, friendship, relief from troubles and redemption. Repeatedly, God’s steadfast love is lifted up as the source of these gifts from God. What the psalmist seeks most is pardon of sin and instruction in God’s ways, both of which lead to humility — that sense of one’s rightful place before God and within the human community. How do integrity and uprightness preserve you?

Prayer: O guard my life and deliver me; do not let me be put to shame,
For I take refuge in You.
May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You.
Redeem Israel, O God, out of all its troubles.
Amen.
(Psalm 25:20-23, New Revised Standard Version)