Daily Lenten Devotional
Monday March 10th…
Psalm 32 opens with a shout of freedom. The psalmist has had a deep experience of being forgiven. His release is palpable. He feels his whole body suddenly singing with soundness. He is feeling oh so good!
But he acknowledges that he could have felt better sooner if only he had spoken up. Which begs the question—why didn’t he?
Coming clean requires courage. It means becoming vulnerable and being exposed. And, yes, there may be those who immediately pounce with condemnation and ridicule at our failure.
But the psalmist realizes that with God, there is nothing to fear. Correction may come, but it will come with redeeming grace. God practices restorative justice—i.e., it is meant to heal the culprit, not destroy them.
What holds you back from confession? What has it felt like to finally get something off your chest? How might it be to offer such grace to someone else? _________________________________________________________
March 9th… The First Sunday of Lent,
Psalm 32
This psalm is an expression of the joy at being forgiven. It is a complete release. It is liberating. The weight of guilt is gone. The fear of being discovered is eliminated. The anxiety over rejection is muted. All is well once again.
The psalmist sings at the realization that God holds no grudges against him. God has accepted his confession. The psalmist comes to a full understanding that God is good and grace abounds. Nothing could be better to see than to see this light of hope.
The psalmist then calls others to let go of their fear of reprisal and make confession, too. He realizes that God’s grace is an overabundance. There is more than enough to go around. The psalmist wonders why anyone would hesitate to make their confession.
Do we ever see confession as a gate to joy? What keeps us from seeing that truth? When have you felt the liberation of forgiveness? How does this insight change the way we might view repenting?
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Saturday March 8th…
Psalm 6 ends with a great affirmation that God has indeed heard and interceded on behalf of the psalmist. Dawn is breaking. The night of suffering is coming to an end.
Without saying it directly, the psalm reminds us that darkness passes. Nothing in all creation lasts forever. Only God is eternal. When we pass through a time of suffering, it can feel endless. But hope can come as we assure ourselves that this moment of pain is fleeting. It cannot last forever.
However, it is also true that we sometimes have a hard time believing that.
What helped the psalmist was the experience that he had been heard. God heard his cries for help. God heard his suffering. Being heard was the first step in healing.
Why is being heard so powerful? What comfort comes in knowing someone actually heard what we were saying? How do you know that God has listened to you?
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Friday March 7th…
Many scholars believe Psalm 6 reflects the experience of illness. Being ill is never pleasant. There is the deep awareness of feeling weak. There is the listlessness of no energy. Our bodies can literally ache with being unwell. We long for being well. It can seem so endless.
It is interesting that if this psalm is indeed a prayer from a time of sickness, the psalmist personifies illness, casting it as an enemy or even a host of enemies. Sickness can be an enemy. It keeps us from doing what we want to do. It robs us of being able to engage in the things we like to do. It separates us from the people around us—no one wants to be with a sick person.
The psalmist looks for an almighty ally in the face of illness, turning to God in prayer.
How does prayer help in a time of illness? How does knowing others are praying for you in an illness make a difference? Have you ever had an experience of God’s healing in a moment of illness?
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Thursday March 6th…
Psalm 6 gives voice to anxiety. Anxiety is worrying about what MIGHT happen, not what actually is happening, or has happened. It is a fear of potentials. We project out what outcomes might come about, trying to steel ourselves to be ready for whatever comes. Unfortunately, when we are truly anxious, we tend not to see any good outcomes, but trend toward worst- case scenarios.
Anxiety often comes because we feel guilty about something. We have said or done something we deeply regret. We are fearful that someone might find out our secret. In the worst anxieties, we can begin to feel paranoid, doubting even our loved ones and friends of their sincerity. Anxiety can be a vicious state to be in.
The psalmist looks to God for release, praying that as he reveals himself to God, God will free him.
What makes you anxious? How do you let go of ‘what ifs’ so you can live in what is? How does prayer become an avenue to escaping anxiety?
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ASH WEDNESDAY
March 5th
Psalm 6 is an evening psalm offered by someone enduring the ordeal of a sleepless night. Tormented, the psalmist cannot find rest. Instead, he feels only anguished suffering. Some scholars think this psalm reflects the experience of being gravely ill. In the dark of night, one doubts that one can survive—all we can feel is being sick.
But not all illnesses are physical. Worry can keep us awake. Fear can keep us awake. A bad argument can keep us awake. A deep sorrow can keep us awake. In the middle of the night, all these feelings can feel so overwhelming.
Yet the psalmist knows that God is near, and so prays for God meet him in the steadfast love that flows from God. It is the middle of the night, but dawn is coming.
Think of your last sleepless night—what helped? Was there prayer? What did it feel like? Was God there?
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LENTEN DEVOTIONAL: THE PENITENTIAL PSALMS
March 4th
Within the Psalter, there are seven Psalms called the Penitential Psalms. They are Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. These prayers of confession address a multitude of ways we have fallen away from God, as well as the subsequent need for restoration through repentance, cleansing, and forgiveness. They are meant to be a tool through which we can fully receive and accept the redeeming grace of God.
One can see why they are so appropriate for the Season of Lent. Lent is a time of preparation as we ready ourselves to celebrate the ultimate act of redemption—the Passion of Christ followed by his Resurrection on Easter morning. It is a season when we can come clean before God, admitting freely the ways we have not lived as God would have us to live; readily admitting the areas in our life that need work; and readily admitting that we cannot achieve these goals on our own, but how much we need God’s presence to do so.
The object is not to tear ourselves to pieces and denigrate who and what we are, but instead to celebrate that God always and forever sees the potential for goodness within us and will not abandon us. God wants us with him in complete communion. These psalms become a way for us to pray ourselves into the presence of God, receiving this wonderful gift of grace.
This year’s Lenten Devotional is designed to aid that process. We will focus on one of the psalms Ash Wednesday and each subsequent Sunday of Lent through Palm Sunday, working through the set of seven. We will use the days to contemplate what the psalm is teaching us, how it offers us a prayer practice for the week, and how we might take in the lesson to reorder our lives to align with the grace God offers.
This promises to be a rich experience for all of us.