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.
SATURDAY, June 5 (Boniface)
Psalm 55. For had it been an adversary who taunted me, then I could have borne it; or had it been an enemy who vaunted himself against me, then I could have hidden from him. But it was you, a man after my own heart, my companion, my own familiar friend.
I remember so clearly the time I discovered these lines in the psalms. It was nearly forty years ago, but I can remember just where I was sitting when I read them.
Suddenly, the person who wrote those words came alive as a real person, a person like me. I knew exactly how he felt, and I was sure he would understand how I felt. We both had known the devastation of "my own familiar friend" making fun of us, making us feel insignificant in order to make himself feel more important.
I wasn't alone any longer in my suffering. I had a companion who had been this way before me.
I don't remember whether I continued reading until I came to "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain you." I hope that I did. (1993)
But I will call upon God, and the Lord will deliver me.
--Psalm 55
PRAY for the Diocese of Delaware (Province III, USA)
Ps 55 * 138, 139:1-17(18-23); Ecclesiastes 5:8-20; Galatians 3:23-4:11; Matthew 15:1-20
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Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
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