Friday, February 18, 2022

Saturday prior to Epiphany 7

 

Psalm 103 - This week’s hymn of the week, LSB 820 “My soul, now praise your Maker” John Poliander (pen name of John Graumann, 1487–1541) was at one time the secretary of Luther’s great opponent, Dr. Eck. But after the Leipzig Disputation in 1519, he was convinced by the Gospel and joined the Reformation. He spent his life furthering the Reformation and combating errorists such as the Anabaptists, especially in Prussia. He wrote this hymn in 1525 at the request of Margrave Albrecht, who loved Psalm 103, of which this hymn is a summary.

It is a song of praise that matches the closing of the Gospel, “He has done all things well.” Jesus is our maker as much as is the Father and the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus opened the deaf-mute’s lips, and those lips spoke plainly, so we open our lips to praise and bless God for all the benefits we have received from him. It is always through Jesus that we receive not only health for our bodies, but for our souls as well. It is in the person and work of Christ alone that we truly come to worship our maker in spirit and in truth.

Collect for Psalm 103: Lord, you have compassion for the sinner, as a father has compassion for his children. Heal the weakness of your people and save us from everlasting death, that with the saints and angels we may praise and glorify you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.[2] Amen

A prayer for newness of life in Christ – Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon ourselves the armor of life, now in the time of this mortal life, in which Your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility, that in the last day, when He shall come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal.[3] – 19 February 2022



[1] Luther’s Seal, copyright © Ed Riojas, Higher Things
[2] Collect for Psalm 103, For All the Saints, A Prayer Book For and By the Church © 1994 The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, Delhi, NY
[3] Collect for newness of life in Christ, Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis

No comments: