Meditating on the law

Beloved of God,

    Will you who are members of this church please make an effort to join us in the congregational meeting this Sunday? We always benefit from having a broad gathered group to help listen to the Spirit and discern our call. Please plan to join us this Sunday at noon if you’re able. 
    If you don’t have lunch plans for Sunday, November 6th, don’t make ‘em! The Mission and Outreach team would love to have you with them to hear about some of the good work we are supporting and ways that you can partner more directly in it. We’ll also have a chance to hear from our directly supported mission partners, the Blakes, and the Joneses. I sure hope you’ll join us that Sunday. 

Our Scripture reading for Sunday morning is from Psalm 119:137-144. It comes from the longest Psalm in our Scriptures, and the focus of the subsection is righteousness. Righteousness has become a word that is used almost exclusively in churches, and that’s such a shame because it is needed so badly and so widely.
In this context, the Psalmist speaks of the law, which isn’t necessarily a trove of poetic material. But the focus of these verses is how the law interacts with righteousness. The final verse is our clue to the shape of that connection:

144     Your statutes are always righteous;
        give me understanding that I may live.

In this Psalm, meditating on God’s law, and understanding it is a path to life. The law of course carries its own force to condemn, and its wisdom always outpaces our holiness. We find salvation in Jesus, the living law. But the point of the law is not only to show us the ways we are wrongheaded and hard-hearted. Meditating on the law also helps us conform our will to God’s. They help us to know the depth of God’s righteousness even as we come face to face with our unrighteousness. Even for those of us who find salvation in Jesus, the law of God has much to teach us and valuable ways to shape us. Let’s join the Psalmist in seeking that understanding that we may live. 

Please join me this week in praying for:

• Those among us, both young and old, facing sickness and recovery.
  
  
• Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
• Wisdom for those who may be called into such positions as communities cast their votes.
• Children who are in a deliberate season of caring for their parents.
• Parents who are in a deliberate season of caring for their children.
• Those who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
• This congregation as we meet together Sunday and seek the Spirit’s wisdom together.
• Students among us as they manage assignments, face deadlines, and live faithfully in other commitments as well.
• Young people among us who are pondering salvation, discipleship, and faith.
• Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall 

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