Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We
give thanks to Rev. Richard Giesken, Adjunct Lecturer in Pastoral Theology and Missiology,
for writing this devotional.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24 (NRSVACE)
A Song of Victory
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is
good;
his steadfast love endures for ever!
2 Let Israel say,
‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
14 The Lord is my strength and my
might;
he has become my salvation.
15 There are glad songs of victory in the
tents of the righteous:
‘The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
16 the right hand of
the Lord is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.’
17 I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
18 The Lord has punished me severely,
but he did not give me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
21 I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvellous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.[a]
Devotional
Staying Present This Holy Week
We know where this week is going. We know about the resurrection. We know how the story ends. And because we know the ending, there is a quiet temptation to move too quickly, past the pain, past the suffering, past the weight of it all. Why linger in what is uncomfortable when we already know that life will come?
But Holy Week will not let us rush. It slows us down. It asks us to stay present.
Psalm 118 is a song of victory: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever.” It is a Passover psalm, a declaration of deliverance, a voice from the other side of rescue. Yet most of life is not lived on the other side. Most of life is lived in the ordinary, or in the middle of things not yet resolved, where outcomes are unclear and the way forward is uncertain.
That is why Holy Week matters. It teaches us to inhabit time differently. To take one day at a time. To pause, not just to remember Jesus’ suffering, but to recognise something deeper: God’s faithfulness in the midst of suffering.
Jesus lives this Psalm. He does not turn back, because he knows God is faithful. He remains present to the Father. He endures rejection, because he knows God is faithful. He walks into suffering and even surrenders his life, because he knows God is faithful. Not because the path is easy. Not because the outcome is visible. But because the character of God is sure.
We read this week through the lens of Easter morning, but in that first Holy Week, nothing was certain. There was no clear resolution, no visible victory, only the steadfast love of God. And that love is not about soothing us or keeping us comfortable. It is something stronger. It is a centre that holds. It is the ground from which justice is embraced, righteousness lived, and holiness embodied.
Easter is not simply God making us feel better. It is God making us new. It is God drawing us into His life and sending us into the world as His people. And that path will not always be easy. Just as Jesus faced rejection and suffering, so will we. And while His life was anything but hidden, many of us will walk much of our journey in obscurity. Yet it is precisely there, in both the seen and unseen places, that the faithful love of God holds us and forms us, so that His life might be made visible in us, and then through us.
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” We hear that now as triumph. But first, it is only rejection. Before Christ is risen, Christ has died.
So do not rush ahead. Stay present. Walk with Christ through what is real, not what you wish were already resolved. And in doing so, experience again life from the only place that will hold you, knowing God’s faithful love endures forever.
Prayer
Oh Lord,
this is the day you have given.
Keep us here, attentive to you.
In what we understand, and what we do not,
help us to trust your faithful love
and to give thanks.
Amen.
Grace and peace,
Richard Giesken
Adjunct Lecturer (Pastoral Theology and Missiology)