DAY 21

"Heavenly Green Hills" by HaraKIN

Psalm 71
Hens

†

A Greeting
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
   my trust, O Lord, from my youth. 
  (Psalm 71:5)

A Reading
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’ 
(Luke 1:39-45)

Music


Meditative Verse
Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
   it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you. 
(Psalm 71:6)

A Poem
To Joseph, I say, “Trust me.”
To Anna and Joachim, “It is of God.”
To all others, silence.
But to Elizabeth, cousin, trusted friend,
I say it all…
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit exults in God, my savior.
Yes, from this day forward
all generations will call me blessed
for the Almighty has done great things for me.
Holy is His name.”
And since that day, when one woman listened to another,
when each baby girl is born
on this earth,
this is her heritage:
a soul proclaiming greatness,
the power of the arm of God,
a spirit exulting,
knowledge of great things,
the name, blessed.
–"Magnificat" by Mary Elizabeth Lauzon
found on the website Utmostchristianwriters.com

The Visitation
by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1866

Second Reading
O God, from my youth you have taught me,
   and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and grey hairs,
   O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might
   to all the generations to come.
Your power and your righteousness, O God,
   reach the high heavens. 
(Psalm 71:17-19)

Verse for the Day
My mouth is filled with your praise,
   and with your glory all day long.
(Psalm 71:8)

†

Elizabeth and John
Detail from the
mystery painting

 Some time in the early period after the return from exile (approx. 570 BCE), roosters and hens were imported from India to the Holy Lands, but mainly for their eggs. By the time of Jesus, they were common and Jesus himself provides us with the only reference to them in the whole of the bible. In his famous lament over Jerusalem, Jesus describes himself as a hen gathering her brood (see Matthew 23 and Luke 13.) Before that, 2 Esdras 1:30 uses the same image and language, but the voice in this case is God's. The only mentions of "fowl" (found in 1 Kings 4 and Nehemiah 5) are likely referring to quails. Therefore, despite its significant population in the late biblical eras, there is no record of hens being food in Scripture. In our own age, the hen is believed to have the worst life of any animal according to both food scientists and animal welfarists, in situations where it is not raised with care. In response to this, there has been a rise in backyard henhouses; small flock pastured hens thrive and live good lives.

"Mama with her chicks" by Judy Ansley

LC† Psalms in the Stable is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto.
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