A Teachable Heart
Psalm 31:9-16 NRSV
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away. I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
For I hear the whispering of many—terror all around! — as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
The hand of God is not the place where we are immune from life’s troubles; it is the place where they happen to us; our security is not from trouble but in trouble.
(New Bible Commentary)
Isaiah 50:4-9 NRSV
The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.
I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me; therefore, I have not been disgraced; therefore, I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?
The power of His mighty word with which he always refuted the Pharisees and scribes, and indeed all the teachers of your race who disputed with Him, was stopped like a full and mighty fountain whose waters have been suddenly shut off when He remained silent and would no longer answer his accusers before Pilate, as was recorded in the writings of the apostles, in order that those words of Isaiah might bear fruit in action: “The Lord gives me a tongue, that I may know when I ought to speak.” And His words, “You are my God, depart not from me,” teach us to put all our trust in God, the Creator of all things, and to seek aid and salvation from Him alone; and not to imagine, as other people do, that we can attain salvation by means of birth, or wealth, or power or wisdom.
(Justin Martyr, “Dialogue with Trypho 102,” Ancient Christian Devotional)
O You from whom to be turned is to fall, to whom to be turned is to rise, and in whom to stand is to abide forever, grant us in all our duties your help, in all our perplexities your guidance, in all our dangers your protection and in all our sorrows your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Augustine – Ancient Christian Devotional)
Ride On to Die
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
