A Highway For Our God: Advent Daybook, 19
Take a few deep breaths, settle your body, mind, and heart into a quiet space, and let’s begin with prayer.
Pray: Heavenly Father, make me more like Jesus as I sit in your loving presence today. Please guide my thoughts and impressions with your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Look: Madonna and Child with St.John the Baptist and a Saint, detail of the background waterside city, Giovanni Bellini - Source
Listen: Messiah / Pt. 1: Comfort ye, My people… Ev’ry Valley shall be exalted, Philip Langridge · Academy of St Martin in the Fields · Sir Neville Marriner · George Frideric Handel - Text | Spotify | YouTube
Read: Psalm 50; Psalm 33; Isaiah 9:18-10:4; 2 Peter 2:10b-16; Matthew 3:1-12
Excerpts:
“The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Our God comes and does not keep silent; before him is a devouring fire and a mighty tempest all around him. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!” The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.”
Selah
*
“For wickedness burned like a fire, consuming briers and thorns; it kindled the thickets of the forest, and they swirled upward in a column of smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land was burned, and the people became like fuel for the fire; no one spared another. They gorged on the right but still were hungry, and they devoured on the left but were not satisfied;
For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.
Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, to make widows their spoil and to plunder orphans!”
*
“—especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust and who despise authority.
Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,
They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”
*
“In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’ ”
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
*
“The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind. From where he sits enthroned he watches all the inhabitants of the earth—he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.
Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.”
Psalm 50:1-6 * Isaiah 9:18-20a, 21b-10:3a * 2 Peter 2:10, 14-16 * Matthew 3:1-11 * Isaiah 10:3b-4 * Psalm 33:13-21
Pray: Psalm 33:20-22
Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield. Our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. (NRSV)
What comes to mind as you pray these verses? What emotions stir? Tell God what you are thankful for today, and then listen to God's reply. Take this practice of prayerful gratitude with you throughout the day and week.
Do: Choose an entire Psalm or a portion of a Psalm from one of the daily readings to memorize during Advent.
Spend a few moments each day memorizing and reciting the Psalm. Notice how the verses begin to embed themselves as you go about your day. Thank God for the comfort of His word.
*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary. Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 1).