Readings: Psalm 27; Isaiah 26:7-15; Acts 2:37-42

O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,

for indeed, all that we have done,

you have done for us.

O Lord our God,

other lords besides you have ruled over us,

but we acknowledge your name alone.

Isaiah 26:12-13

I don’t usually rearrange poetic prophetic passages, but my eyes and mind reversed these two verses – a forward-backward and backward-forward commute:

O Lord our God,

other lords besides you have ruled over us,

but we acknowledge your name alone.

O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,

for indeed, all that we have done,

you have done for us.

Isaiah 26:13-12

In proper order, the peace I find when I know my entire life is God’s gift to me long before it could be my gift to God allows me to admit that I’ve given myself over to other rulers. Serving greed, gluttony, sloth, and all the other usual vices has taken me down paths better left alone. God’s peace allows me to see my straying for what it is and brings me back home.

In reverse order, admitting to the things I have done and left undone show me where my life has been ruled by other lords. Aware of my fractured loyalty, I can offer all I do and all I am to God, once again held in love and peace by the One who gifted this life to me.

I am thankful for Isaiah’s palindrome of grace.