Daily Lesson for November 12, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 78 verses 9 through 20:

9 The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow, *

turned back in the day of battle;

10 They did not keep the covenant of God, *

and refused to walk in his law;

11 They forgot what he had done, *

and the wonders he had shown them.

12 He worked marvels in the sight of their forefathers, *

in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He split open the sea and let them pass through; *

he made the waters stand up like walls.

14 He led them with a cloud by day, *

and all the night through with a glow of fire.

15 He split the hard rocks in the wilderness *

and gave them drink as from the great deep.

16 He brought streams out of the cliff, *

and the waters gushed out like rivers.

17 But they went on sinning against him, *

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18 They tested God in their hearts, *

demanding food for their craving.

19 They railed against God and said, *

"Can God set a table in the wilderness?

20 True, he struck the rock, the waters gushed out, and the

gullies overflowed; *

but is he able to give bread

or to provide meat for his people?"

This morning’s Lesson gives us the day of battle — a moment at hand which calls on a people to rise up in defense of their nation or people, or values, or freedoms.

But the tribe of Ephraim did not come for the battle. Even armed with bows in their hands, they refused the fight. 

The Pslamist said it was a kind of fear, a timidity based upon amnesia. They had forgotten what all God had done before. So they lacked faith and had not courage. 

We all have some battle before us today. The Psalm is given us to remind us to be of good courage, to look down and see that we are armed, and to remember how God has fought our battles for us in times past. 

Now is not the time to loose heart. Now is the time to stand up. It is time to stand up for the cause of truth, and righteousness, and equality, and justice for all. Now is the time to see what is in our hands and bring it. 

A hymn text for today, written in 1845 by New England poet James Russell Lowell in protest against the Union’s annexation of yet another slave state, Texas:

Once to ev'ry man and nation 

Comes the moment to decide, 

In the strife of truth and falsehood, 

For the good or evil side; 

Some great cause, some great decision, 

Off'ring each the bloom or blight, 

And the choice goes by forever 

'Twixt that darkness and that light. 

2 Then to side with truth is noble, 

When we share her wretched crust, 

Ere her cause bring fame and profit, 

And 'tis prosperous to be just; 

Then it is the brave man chooses 

While the coward stands aside. 

Till the multitude make virtue 

Of the faith they had denied. 

3 By the light of burning martyrs, 

Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track, 

Toiling up new Calv'ries ever 

With the cross that turns not back; 

New occasions teach new duties, 

Ancient values test our youth; 

They must upward still and onward, 

Who would keep abreast of truth. 

4 Tho' the cause of evil prosper, 

Yet the truth alone is strong; 

Tho' her portion be the scaffold, 

And upon the throne be wrong; 

Yet that scaffold sways the future, 

And, behind the dim unknown, 

Standeth God within the shadow, 

Keeping watch above His own.