My Family Prayer Book

 2026-03-12 Fourth Sunday in Lent     1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a Right from the start, Samuel warned the people about the dark side of choosing to have a king rule over them (1 Samuel 8), giving numerous examples of what kings could do when they get their hands on power. The eventual failure of Saul as king, where he disobeyed Yahweh as also the cost of war upon war, and the stark divisions rampant in the young nation - was very painful to Samuel. And he was repenting for having brought these miseries on the people - but now God asks him to go out once more to anoint the new king. Initially Samuel is looking for someone like Saul - tall, strong and handsome but God tells him, "Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance  but the LORD looks into the heart.”. God directs him to anoint the youngest son of Jesse, the shepherd boy David. Psalm 23 This evergreen popu...

  Jul-18 Sixteenth Sunday Jeremiah 23:1-6 This passage is the conclusion of the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the shepherds of Israel. The bad shepherds of the flock are the five ungodly kings of Judah (Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah) on the throne of David who have brought to ruin and scattered the descendants of Abraham and David, until the fall of Jerusalem to Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar and the destruction of Solomon's Temple in 587 BC. Christ is spoken of as a branch from David's family who will set things right.  Psalm 23 King David, a mere shepherd-boy who was chosen to be the ruler over Israel, sings this psalm of Yahweh, the true Shepherd and King of men. It sounds as if he wrote it in his later years, with a fullness of experience, and a tone of subdued, quiet confidence which speaks of a heart mellowed by years, and of a faith made strong by many trials. The old king seems to be looking back with such vivid and loving remembrance to hi...