Friends,
I’d like to share a new practice with you which I’ve been enjoying for some months, regarding the psalms.
There are 150 of them, as you may already know; and there are roughly 30 days in a month. 150 divided by 30 is 5, so today I’m reading five psalms, sequentially incrementing each of them by adding 30, thusly: today is the 21st, so I’m reading psalms 21, 51, 81, 111, and 141. It makes for a lovely meditation — especially if you read between the lines! (I use the BlueLetterBible, online, which features various translations, for comparison purposes, and minimal advertising. (Good research tools, too.)
We are told: Pray the Lord of the harvest that S/He send forth laborers into the harvest. (see Matt 9:38 and Luk 10:2)
I used to wonder why the Lord needed our prayers, but then came to see that we were invited to the harvest party. We can RSVP simply by showing up, by reading and meditating. And listening, which may be the highest form of prayer.
Photo: youtube (fair use)
NOTE: As Psalm 119 is so long (175 verses!), and divided into subheads alphabetically, it could be apportioned daily, as an extension of our fifth item. Below is a column enumerating the 22 letters of biblical Hebrew to help you read the one for the “extra” portion, making six items (for 22 days). You could print this out and keep it handy. (I’ve taped mine near my keyboard for easy reference.) The day of the month is on the left, and the name/pronunciation of the Hebrew letter on the right. (You will see these inserted into the text of Psalm 119, untranslated, which appears on the 29th day. But by day 22, we will have read the entire Psalm, so we can skip ahead by 30 to Psalm 149.)
1. ALEPH
2. BETH
3. GIMEL
4 DALET
5. HEY
6. VAU
7. ZAIN
8. CHET
9 TETH
10. YOD
11. CAPH
12. LAMED
13. MEM
14. NUN
15. SAMEK
16 AIN
17. PEH
18. TZADI
19. KOPH
20 RESH
21. SHIN
22. TAU