Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
FRIDAY, January 21 (Agnes)
Psalm 31. Blessed be the Lord! for he has shown me the wonders of his love in a besieged city.
It is hard to imagine a worse circumstance than siege. Besieged people live in their own familiar environment, watching it disintegrate, watching their neighbors die on their own doorsteps.
Ancient Israel knew about besieged cities, as one great power after another swept across its borders. Out of that experience much of the poetry of Israel’s faith is painfully wrought. What is also wrought is the resiliency of Israel’s faith, as when the psalmist cried out, “Blessed be the Lord! for he has shown me the wonders of his love in a besieged city.” Amid the terror and loss, the destruction of all that was precious, the psalmist kept an eye out for evidence of the love of God. The psalmist was rewarded, touched by wonder, and upheld.
There are times when each of us feels under siege, bombarded by forces which seem to destroy our every tranquility. In such times we must keep an eye out for signs of the love of God. For those signs are never more present than when the darkness is deepest, the sorrow most agonizing, the terror most real. God comes to us in such times to touch us with his love. “Blessed be the Lord!” (1995)
PRAY for the Diocese of Long Island (Province II, USA)
Ps 31 * 35; Isaiah 45:18-25; Ephesians 6:1-9; Mark 4:35-41
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