Meditations: June 2025

Lord, make me a tree planted by rivers of water,
Bearing fruit in my season, unwithered in leaf,
With my fruitful vine tangled around me
And all my olive shoots at my table.

I have been trying to meditate more on Scripture, inspired by and with help from a chapter in Tim Keller’s book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. The above and below have been my recurring meditations this month. Foremost on this list is Ps 123, which however I do not include because I have not altered it. I wait for you, O Lord. All else is excerpted from, remixed from, or (thunderhead) inspired by the text of Scripture as I seek to apply it to my life. I don’t remember every reference, but if you see a weird turn of phrase, you can probably search the ESV to find its origin.

Untangle the serpent of my heart;
Make him an uncrooked staff in your hand,
As straight as the way on which you make me go.

Lord, you are good.
You will good things for me.
You effect good things for me.
When Ethan says, I will sing of your steadfast love forever, he means,
1 That you will keep me forever in a state able to praise,
2 That your goodness is worth singing about
Forever.

Better to wander the wilderness of celibate singleness
Than return to the pornographies of Egypt:
You did not bring me here to kill me.
Though I stagger under your rebuke,
Still you hold me up,
For I acknowledge my guilt,
And day and night I seek your face.
In my distress I earnestly seek you—
Be not far away!
I had taken my idols into my heart,
But you have broken them all.
I had set my stumbling block before my face,
But on it you humbled me.
Bind up my brokenness, Lord;
Let the bones you have broken rejoice.
It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I might learn your statutes,
For I had gone astray like a lost sheep,
Yet you sought your servant.
Seek your servant, Lord!
For I do not forget your commandments.
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
For I am lonely and afflicted.

When the Lord thunders from heaven,
When the clouds discharge his thunderbolts,
When he digs channels in heaven for his downpour
And empties his treasuries of hail,
Will there be a front porch somewhere in New Jerusalem,
Rocking chairs and sweet tea,
To watch the ineffable thunderhead?

The Lord is wise in his doings;
With discernment he nurtures Jerusalem’s fields.
He plows in the time for plowing;
He harrows, but only until the field is level.
He sows by the hand of Moses and Aaron;
They plant, Paul and Apollos water,
But he himself gives the increase.
He does not run a sledge over dill nor cumin,
But he disciplines them as a father;
Even when he threshes his wheat severely,
It is to remove all worthlessness from good ears.
Surely he does all things in their proper season.
Increase my harvest, Lord!