In the experience of our psalmist today, “the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” Has that been your experience? The entire psalm spoke to my heart today. I even considered leading you through a lectio divina meditation on it verse by verse. That didn’t seem to work for this Threads of Grace, but you might consider it on your own, taking time to see what words or phrases grab your attention.

“Gracious and full of compassion” seems to be a theme running through all the lectionary readings appointed for today. In the passage from the Hebrew scriptures, Mosses reminds the people how frightened they were with the theophany at Horeb/Sinai and how they begged for a mediator to stand between them and the Divine. He pointed out how our merciful God responded with grace and compassion in promising to raise up prophets to proclaim God’s word to the people. And from our point in this salvation history, we know God continues to be faithful in providing us with prophets to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” In our epistle, we find an example of generous self-giving, coming from a heart that is “gracious and full of compassion,” a heart that had been transformed into the image and likeness of the Divine on the road to Damascus. And in our gospel lesson, we see Jesus teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum and being “gracious and full of compassion” in responding to the desperate disrupter with healing love.

With the psalmist, I am inspired to give thanks “to the Lord with my whole heart.” I have experienced “the great deeds of the Lord” in my own life and in the lives of those I love. I am awed by “His work [so] full of majesty and splendor.” I suspect that you are as well when you reflect on all the ways the Holy One has worked in your life. May we join with all around the world who know the Beloved as “gracious and full of compassion” in unceasing praise forever and ever.