Psalm 31:9-16 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 31:9-16 on biblegateway.com
Verse 9Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.
Verse 10For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.
Verse 11I 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.
Verse 12I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
Verse 13For I hear the whispering of many- terror all around!- as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.
Verse 14But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, "You are my God."
Verse 15My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
Verse 16Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
Devotion
How often the psalms mirror for us the feelings in which we are immersed! The lament, the pain, the terror, the grief—and yet also, always, the conviction that God finds us in this brokenness and brings us into community, into love, into healing, into reconciliation. God draws us beyond what we can imagine, beyond what we can act upon, always reaching to us, always breathing into and through us.
Prayer
God who grasps us in our sorrow, hold us tightly as we open ourselves to the pain in the world. Help our hearts to be broken open, rather than into shards. Help us to put one foot in front of the other, each day in every way, so that we can feel your steadfast love. Amen.
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