Daily Devotion

This daily devotion is based on the Morning Office. It comes with selected readings from the appointed Psalm and another Scripture text, accompanied by reflections and prayers. This devotion is suitable for personal and family devotions. It will be best to both read and listen. The link to the entire Morning Office today is provided at the end of each devotion. This project started on Ash Wednesday, 2025 and are offered for weekdays only. More info here.

20th March – Boasting Allowed

Audio

Prepare

Welcome to Thursday, 20th of March, and the sixteenth day of Lent.

Psalm Reading

Let us read today’s appointed psalm, Psalm 34, in its entirety.

¹ I will bless the Lord at all times;
    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

² My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
    let the humble hear and be glad.

³ Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
    and let us exalt his name together!

⁴ I sought the Lord, and he answered me
    and delivered me from all my fears.

⁵ Those who look to him are radiant,
    and their faces shall never be ashamed.

⁶ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.

⁷ The angel of the Lord encamps
    around those who fear him, and delivers them.

⁸ Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

⁹ Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
    for those who fear him have no lack!

¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger;
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

¹¹ Come, O children, listen to me;
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

¹² What man is there who desires life
    and loves many days, that he may see good?

¹³ Keep your tongue from evil
    and your lips from speaking deceit.

¹⁴ Turn away from evil and do good;
    seek peace and pursue it.

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
    and his ears toward their cry.

¹⁶ The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
    to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

¹⁷ When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
    and delivers them out of all their troubles.

¹⁸ The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
    and saves the crushed in spirit.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
    but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

²⁰ He keeps all his bones;
    not one of them is broken.

²¹ Affliction will slay the wicked,
    and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

²² The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
    none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be forever. Amen.

Scripture Reading

Our reading today comes from the Old Testament. Of the text at Jeremiah 9:12-24, we read here verses 23-24.

²³ Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, ²⁴ but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Reflection

In our Asian culture where boasting is frowned upon, perhaps we have never tried to do what the psalmist did – “My soul makes its boast in the Lord“. Or what the prophet Jeremiah counseled – “let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows [the Lord]”. We find it hard to talk about our God. We become almost timid.

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (7th Ed) defines the word “boast” as “to talk with too much pride about something you have” or “to have something that is impressive and that you can be proud of”.

Is our hesitancy with boasting in the Lord really borne out of our cultural constraints of modesty? Or can it be because we do not really know our Lord to realise the Pearl of Great Value (Matthew 13:45-46) we have? We do not boast because we actually do not think very much of Him. Jesus is a “Sunday morning thing” rather than the LORD of every hour, every day. Jesus is the Miracle Worker, the Problem Solver, the Ultimate Insurance I trigger when I run into a problem; otherwise, He is good just staying in my drawer.

If we find reading all twenty-two verses of today’s appointed psalm long, that signals to us how much the psalmist has to say about his Lord. He knows so much, expects so much, experienced so much that he is almost bursting to say it all.

May we seek a clearer, broader and deeper revelation of Who our God really is, so emerge from this season of Lent with a startling realisation of how great and marvelous a Treasure we have. And then, we will boast.

Collect/Prayer

We borrow, and make our own, the words of prayer left us by St. Benedict (5th-6th Cent.):-

Gracious and Holy Father,
give us the wisdom to discover You,
the intelligence to understand You,
the diligence to seek after You,
the patience to wait for You,
eyes to behold You,
a heart to meditate upon You,
and a life to proclaim You;
through the power of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Link to today’s Morning Office