Today’s psalm is actually our lectionary psalm for Sunday, Palm Sunday. It may sound familiar, with festal shouts and great praise. As we make our way to Palm Sunday in this season of disruption, for what do you praise God? If we were shouting to Christ with our palms, what would be our prayer? How do praise God in the midst of our joys and our concerns?
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
118:1 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!
118:2 Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
118:19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD.
118:20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.
118:21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
118:22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
118:23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
118:24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
118:25 Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!
118:26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD. We bless you from the house of the LORD.
118:27 The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.
118:28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.
118:29 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Prayer of the Day:
Great God, You are one God, and you bring together what is scattered, and mend what is broken. Unite us with the scattered peoples of the earth that we may be one family of your united children. Bind up all our wounds and heal us in spirit that we may be renewed. In Christ we pray, Amen.