Daily Lesson for October 19, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 16 verses 8 through 10:

8 I have set the Lord always before me; 

because he is at my right hand I shall not fall.

9 My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; 

my body also shall rest in hope.

10 For you will not abandon me to the grave, 

nor let your holy one see the Pit.

Psalm 16 is known by its Latin name “Conserva me, Domine”, taken from the first words of the psalm — “Protect me, LORD”.

The LORD protects us, conserves us, and saves us. These are the LORD’s great promises; and because of them our souls rest even amidst all the great turmoil and uncertainties of our lives and times. The LORD protects and watches over us; the LORD is at our right hand and will not let us fall. 

So then our spirits and also our bodies are at rest. We rest and we sleep. For we know the world is in the LORD’s hands. We die knowing the earth is in the LORD’s hands. We live and die in the LORD’s hands.

The Lesson says, our bodies “rest in hope”.  So we surrender ourselves to hope. As the prophet Zechariah says, we become “prisoners of hope”, giving ourselves up and over to it completely, allowing ourselves to be buried in it, and hoping to be raised up into also.

“Conserva me, LORD”.  Protect and deliver me, dear God. Let me be buried in hope — tonight in my bed, and tomorrow in my grave, and always in Thy peace.