Ostrander Presbyterian Church

Saturday March 28, 2026
Psalm 137:1-2
1 By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down, and there we wept when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our harps.

Although we may not really understand what the psalmist is talking about here, Psalm 137 is a song of lament over the Jewish exile in Babylon. This psalm captures their deep sorrow, their homesickness, and also their anger and frustration with their captors. This passage captures a beautiful image of flowing rivers and willow groves but casts it as a place of morning. Although most of us cannot resinate with exile, I wonder if we can resinate with the feeling of being separated from what we love. I think that we all have times in our lives when we are separated from loved ones, or times where we have to live in a place that we do not call home, but there is one sort of exile, a self chosen one, that hurts us the most. It is the separation that we choose for ourselves from God. As Paul says in Romans 8:38-39, “38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And I will add, that nothing can separate you from the love of God, not even you. But we do something to ourselves, we choose to believe that there is no possible way that God could love us, and so we ignore what is in front of us, ignore that God has blessed us, is with us, and loves us even at our worst moments. Perhaps another way to look at it is that we must be willing to forgive ourselves for what we have done and said in our lives in order to get that out of our way of seeing and feeling the tremendous love of God that is always steadfastly there.

Gracious heavenly God grant that in this season of Lent that we might draw ever closer to You, and that we would become truly grateful for what You have done for us.

Friday March 27, 2026
Psalm 143:8
8 Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

Yes, God, let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning so that I might start my day with a fresh sense of who you are, but importantly let me be capable of listening to what I hear from You. How often do we read the words of scripture and walk out of our door cursing the world. How often do we remind ourselves to love our neighbors and yet we struggle with driving to work without being aggravated by those who share the road with us. As we pray that God would speak to us, let us also pray that God would give us ears to hear, minds to listen, and hearts to serve.

Gracious heavenly God grant that in this season of Lent that we might draw ever closer to You, and that we would become truly grateful for what You have done for us.

Wednesday March 25, 2026
Psalm 119:147
147 I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.

Wow, this passage hits home for me right now. I feel like when I wake in the morning, that before my feet hit the floor I am already acknowledging my need for help. An to be clear, I am frustrated with what is going on in the world, but it is also that I very often feel woefully prepared for what the day holds. First let me acknowledge that I am struggling with the hateful rhetoric in our country and in our world, I am frustrated that as we call ourselves a Christian nation, that at the same time we have found excuse after excuse to not live into what God calls us to do. So yes, I am frustrated and I constantly ask for God to assist me as I navigate what it means to be a Christian in today’s world, and perhaps even more difficulty what it means to be a pastor in today’s world. But on a personal level, let me explain what I mean by feeling woefully prepared of the day. It is not that I think that my seminary training falls short of giving me necessary skills and tools, that is not the case at all. But rather I find myself tired, struggling with my own agenda getting in my way, and feeling frustrated when one more obstacle, or one more task gets added to my day. And so I find myself soft of naturally saying what we read from the psalmist today, Lord before I rise in the morning, I already cry out for your assistance but my hope for getting through today and every day is your word, your will, and your way. Which by the way the word for “word” in this passage in Hebrew means word but also way or concerns. And I guess there is why I find myself so renitent with today’s passage, because I know what my prayer should be, and sometimes I am actually able to get it out of my mouth, and that is “Lord I need your help, make my ways your ways, make your concerns my concerns, get me out of my way so that I can serve as you would wish.”

Gracious heavenly God grant that in this season of Lent that we might draw ever closer to You, and that we would become truly grateful for what You have done for us.