Daily Prayer: a resource of Forward Movement

The Forward Day by Day Meditation for September 20, 2012

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THURSDAY, September 20

Psalm 71. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. (NRSV)

Many of the psalms, serving as pastoral battle hymns, attribute references of strength to God. The supplication for God to be a rock of refuge is a reference to both physical shelter and spiritual strength. Isaiah 32:1-2 references a king who will reign in righteousness “like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.” Christians continued this tradition; Christ is later described as the spiritual rock from which people drank (1 Corinthians 10:4).

In Psalm 71, the writer, during violent, turbulent times, calls to God in distress, asking for ultimate security, shelter, and solace. While most of us will not face that same level of physical harm and danger, we have entered into a new era of unprecedented economic and political instability. Unemployment is running rampant, more families are homeless or on income or food assistance, and people’s nest eggs are depleted. In today’s fragile world, spiritual rocks are just what we seem to need, to give us hope and the ability to see a way through harsh times—and we are to be rocks of love and support for each other.

PRAY for the Diocese of Haiti (Province II, The Episcopal Church)

Today the Church remembers John Coleridge Patteson, Bishop of Melanesia, and his Companions, Martyrs, 1871.

Ps [70], 71 * 74; Job 28:1-28; Acts 16:25-40; John 12:27-36a