Springs of water

Notes of meeting on 28 November 2017

Psalm 114

¹ When Israel came out of Egypt,
    Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
² Judah became God’s sanctuary,
    Israel his dominion.

³ The sea looked and fled,
    the Jordan turned back;
⁴ the mountains leaped like rams,
    the hills like lambs.

⁵ Why was it, sea, that you fled?
    Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
⁶ Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
    you hills, like lambs?

⁷ Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
    at the presence of the God of Jacob,
⁸ who turned the rock into a pool,
    the hard rock into springs of water.

 

 

Ecclesiasticus / Sirach 3 v 1-9

¹ My child, do not refuse the poor a livelihood, do not tantalise the needy.
² Do not add to the sufferings of the hungry, do not bait anyone in distress.
³ Do not aggravate a heart already angry, nor keep the destitute waiting for your alms.
⁴ Do not repulse a hard-pressed beggar, nor turn your face from the poor.
⁵ Do not avert your eyes from the needy, give no one occasion to curse you;
⁶ for if someone curses you in distress, his Maker will give ear to the imprecation.
⁷ Gain the love of the community, in the presence of the great bow your head.
⁸ To the poor lend an ear, and courteously return the greeting.
⁹ Save the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, and do not be mean-spirited in your judgements.

 

 

Lord we thank you that you are a mighty God and yet you stoop down to meet us and change our stony hearts to hearts from which your springs of living water flow.

Help us to be generous the poor those who are poor spiritually and physically as you have been generous to us with your gifts of mercy and love