July 27, 2024 

Today's Reading: Introit for Pentecost 10 - Psalm 145:1-3, 6-7; antiphon: Psalm 145:5

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 12:1-25; Acts 22:30-23:11

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. (Psalm 145:3)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Do you meditate? In our Psalm today, David does! It’s important for us to distinguish the meditation that Scripture extols from the meditation that the world would teach us. Meditation, as the world understands it, is usually intended to empty our minds or to broaden our minds to the point that we’re free from constraints. In God’s Word, meditation doesn’t “free our minds” but draws us deeper into His Word! Being empty-headed is not seen as a goal but as part of the problem! So, when David meditates on God, his attention is focused on the “glorious splendor of [God’s] majesty” and “[God’s] wondrous works.” In other words, what does it mean for God to be God? And what does this look like in time and space? David answers the first by saying that God is “unsearchably great!” That’s not usually a phrase we use, but it’s the truth. No amount of searching, contemplating, or imagining could adequately describe how great the Lord is! But, in a way, you should expect nothing less than an answer like that. After all, if a god isn’t beyond understanding, almighty, majestic—he’s not much of a god, is he? That’s why the second part is so very important for our own meditation upon the Lord! What is God like? Let me tell you what He has done! That’s what the rest of Psalm 145 essentially says. You know what God is like because of what He has done for His people. God’s actions speak plenty loud—they shout His great love for us! They show us His redemptive work, time after time. And these actions are chiefly known through the sending of His Son. Do you want to know what kind of a God we have? Look to the cross. Peer into the empty tomb. Listen to Jesus’ words of peace and forgiveness. Hear Jesus as He tells us that He goes to prepare a place for us. Trust that He has restored you into the favor of God as dear, forgiven children. It shouldn’t surprise us that Christian meditation isn’t about us at all. It’s about Christ. We fix our eyes on Him, lest we become distracted by the temptations and allures of this world. God has invited us to meditate upon this unsearchably great majesty, on these wondrously loving works. And that meditation keeps us anchored in Christ! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Before You, Lord, we bow, Our God Who reigns above And rules the world below, Boundless in pow’r and love. Our thanks we bring In joy and praise, Our hearts we raise To You, our King! Amen. (LSB 966:1)

-Rev. Dustin Beck is pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Corpus Christi, TX.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

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