October 2

1. Psalm 3 reminds me of the collect for Vespers, asking for God's protection during the night. that God protect us not from our enemies per se, but from the fear of our enemies. (Think of the sins committed by Abraham, King Saul, Peter, et al because they were afraid of what man could do to them.) Long before the collect was written, Psalm 3:5-6 had put together the themes of sleep, the Lord's sustenance and protection from fear.
2. Is the Deuteronomy reading giving us an example of Moses failing like we do, blaming others when it was really his fault? For he says that "The LORD was angry with me because of you..." (3:26)... Numbers 20 would indicate it was "because of Moses" not "you". The Lutheran Study Bible gives that reference in the notes (without pointing out the "not really because of you" aspect. AND it has a great quote of Luther from AE 9:42, pointing out that though, like Moses, we are not heard by God, He still gives us evidence of His favor, even as He gave Moses to see the Promised Land.
3. "Whatever you wish that others would do to you..." (Matthew 7:12) follows right after the section on prayer. We pray for others even as we wish they would pray for us.
4. Brilliant Writing by Gerhard. In some places of this selection, it sounds a bit like prayer is a means of grace. Since it is Friday, I started thinking of the final four points in terms of our Lord's first prayer from the Cross (Luke 23:34):

• God's omnipotent kindness - omnipotence without kindness is dangerous for us. Kindness without omnipotence leads to, "I wish there is something I could do, but I can't." His kindness is all-powerful over our sin as the Father does forgive us.
• God's unfailing truthfulness - just think if God's promise to forgive was really just an example of Him pulling our leg. yikes.
• Christ's intercession as our mediator - case in point, this prayer from the Cross. Kleinig uses the example of Christ giving us a piggy back ride into the Holy of Holies
• The Holy Spirit's Testimony - without His bringing to mind all the Lord had spoken, inspiring Luke to write what he had heard from others, we would not know this prayer had been prayed.

for what it's worth...