The Daily Office for October 17, 2012
Scripture Readings
Old Testament
Psalm
New Testament
Gospel
Reflection
Likely written while still under persecution from Saul, in today's psalm David exhibits the progression toward God a true believer must take when he or she is confronted with intolerable circumstances. David’s first reaction is that God has abandoned him, and he protests this supposed abandonment. Although God cannot forget His own, frequently we feel as though we have been forgotten by Him, or that He has hidden His face from us. David wrestled all night with plans to escape his enemy, and day after day he experienced the futility of those plans.
Then David comes to realize that God never abandons His children so he prays for God to give him victory. Now comes the joy of morning after a night of weeping. Now comes the prayer of faith, a petition pure and simple. Through it all David still refers to Jehovah as "My God." David will prevail against his enemy from his knees. The prayer of David asks for nothing but that the honor of God be identified with the deliverance of His servant. After prayer, he is then confident that God will deliver him and the psalm ends in a final note of praise. The feeling of isolation from God and the rejoicing of salvation in God are only separated by prayer to God.
Collect for the Day
Feed us, O Lord, with the living bread and make us drink deep of the cup of salvation that, following the teaching of your bishop Ignatius and rejoicing in the faith with which he embraced a martyr’s death, we may be nourished for that eternal life for which he longed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.