Saturday, March 21
Read: Psalm 143; 1 Kings 17:17-24; Acts 20:7-12
As I write today’s devotional, I am between the day of my father’s death and the day when we hold a service to acknowledge his life, and the promised gift of resurrection.
I cannot count the number of times I have read the words of Psalm 143 in worship, or in private devotional moments. Today, as the words spoke to the aches and pains of my soul, I realized grief gives the heart, soul, and body quite a workout. Psalm 143 is a lament. If you search the word LAMENT it can be defined as a “a passionate expression of grief, sorrow or regret.”
This Psalm of David, begins, in verse 1 with the familiar words: “Hear my prayers, O Lord; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness.” By verse 7, the plea is more urgent, “Answer me quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails, do not hide your face from me…”
However, David reminds us that the Lord will not leave us in distress as long as we listen with our hearts. In verse 8, for example, we hear these words; “Let me hear your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I will put my trust.”
On a Monday, as the sun was setting, my father breathed his last breath. Our souls were comforted by the voice of a hospice nurse serving my father the final act of love…as she bathed his 93-year-old body. She asked my mother, “Was there a favorite hymn?” My mother answered, “In the Garden.” My my immediate family will forever remember hearing her loving, soft voice, as she sang; “And he walks with me and he talks to me and tells me I am his own…”
Prayer:
We have tried to mend our own souls for too long, O Lord; and we are not up to the task. Heal our wounds, and those whom we have wounded. And bind up our hearts in your loving hands. For you are the one who leads us, by your steadfast love, to the place of trust and joy. Amen.
The Reverend Bill Elwell ’80 is senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
