The Work of Our Hands

I like to post a picture or image of something that has touched me in the daily lectionary. Today I googled "working hands" and found this picture (it's from jeannetteb1.wordpress.com). I have NOT read multiple English translations of the lectionary recently - shame on me - so this was an interesting and fortuitous googling.

I was captured by Ps. 90:17 because I am slowly but surely working on a commissioning ceremony for our priest that we can use for the group of cooks we formed to work each Sunday at a local soup kitchen.

Here's the New King James (NKJ) version:

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us.
Yes, establish the work of our hands for us.

Here's the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) which I use all the time:

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
And prosper for us the work of our hands --
O prosper the work of our hands!


A subtle - or maybe not so subtle - difference hits me. In the NKJ version I feel I'm sitting around waiting for something to do, and God provides me the right thing to pursue. In the NRSV I'm out there working away, but realize that I should turn to God for guidance to do the right thing and then bless that work. In the first I am passive and in the latter I'm active.

There's a theme running through the lectionary today for me of following the law vs. following the Spirit of the law. It comes out very strongly in Romans where Paul continues to speak to the Jews about their relationship over time with the law vs. the gentiles who are not under the same law. He is trying to reconcile the two situations to his audience in Rome. I see this theme picked up again in Matthew where, once again, the Pharisees are testing Jesus' knowledge of the law. Even though, the Pharisees say, the Law prohibits divorce, Moses let them do it. "How come?" Jesus response is sharp and to the point: "It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce. But in the beginning it was not so."

So that's the backdrop for the prayer I composed today:

Most Merciful, your gifts, guidance, and pardon have accompanied us through our days, and all our sources of life spring from you; let your favor be upon our works, so that we may faithfully follow the Spirit of your Word and Commandment, to the furthering of your Will and not ours. Amen.

----------------
Daily office year two:
Num 13:31-14:25; Ps. 87/90, 136; Rom. 3:9-20; Matt. 19:1-12