Reflect on the Psalms in the First Nations Version (called “Sacred Songs”) and engage Scripture through the voice and cadence of a Native storyteller. Creator’s story has always spoken to every people and every land, and these devotionals draw from stories of Indigenous community, wisdom of elders, and the land itself, reminding us that Creator’s hope is given to be shared.
Whoever you are and wherever you come from, you are welcome in this circle. May these daily readings renew your spirit and remind you that Creator’s hope walks with you wherever you go.
Sacred Song 27:1
The Psalms are songs of the people, prayers lifted at the fire, cries in the night, and shouts of joy at sunrise. They remind us that hope is a strong medicine given by Creator for our hearts and our communities. Each day, we will receive from a Native American lens a different kind of medicine from the Psalms: strength, trust, joy, rest, gratitude, unity, and peace. May these words strengthen our spirits, draw us back to Creator’s presence, and remind us that Creator never leaves us without hope.
“Grandfather is my light, the One Who Sets Me Free. Who should I fear? My life is kept safe as Grandfather watches over me. I am not afraid” — Psalm 27:1, First Nations Version (FNV)
Creator’s strength is our medicine. The psalmist sings with confidence: light, freedom, and safety come from God. In the First Nations Version, one of the names for God is Grandfather, the One who provides wisdom, love, and care for the people. These words remind us that strength flows from God as our source, renewing our hearts with courage and planting hope for the days ahead.
Think for a moment about where you need strength. Maybe you feel stretched by responsibility or have a concern for someone you love. Maybe you are simply longing for peace in your own heart. Wherever you are, God’s strength meets you right there, like air in your lungs and ground beneath your feet. You can lean into it right now wherever you are.
God’s strength is like a breath moving through us, ever-present and constant. It calms our hearts when we pray. It shows up when we need courage to keep going. It lingers when the night feels long and greets us again when morning rises. God’s strength is never far away; we only need to ask, and it will be given.
In Indigenous traditions, medicine is given to bring life to the people. A plant heals when it is used. A birdsong brings peace when it is sung. A prayer gives courage when it is prayed. In the same way, God’s strength becomes real when we receive it. It is not theory—it is a gift always within reach.
As you journey, let God’s strength be your medicine. Let it give you courage. Let it plant hope in your spirit.
Medicine for the Day
I receive the strength of God as medicine that renews my spirit today.
Sacred Song 37:3–5
“Put all your trust in Grandfather. Live in harmony with the land, and you will be well-fed and cared for. Make Grandfather your greatest desire, and he will give you what your heart longs for. Trust Grandfather to show you the road to walk, and you can be sure he will walk it with you” – Psalm 37:3-5, FNV
So much is happening around us, and it can feel quite challenging. Life’s troubles often bring the question, “Where is God in all of this?” Maybe your own heart has felt the strain of that question. Central to this tension is a medicine that speaks to one’s spirit: trust. Trust in our Creator helps us see hope when our own eyes cannot. Trust in God is the Lord’s hopeful reminder that love never stops making a way, so we can look forward to brighter days.
Think about trust in God and how it meets us wherever we are on this road of life. Trust begins its work before everything is resolved. It enters our anxious places and brings calm. It meets us in our confusion and walks us through cloudiness. Ultimately, trust in God draws us out of trying to figure it all out on our own and into God’s rhythm, where our hearts learn to rest and trust the process.
When trust in God is cultivated, we start to notice it in our everyday lives. Trust becomes visible when hope shows up in the ordinary. Trust is felt when we breathe a little easier after we have prayed, when our shoulders loosen as we release what we cannot control, and when our spirit feels lighter as we remember Creator is always with us. Trust lives in these instances, reminding us we are sustained by a love greater than our concerns.
Medicine speaks to the whole of life, and trust works this way too. It gathers every part of who we are and reminds us that God brings what our hearts long for where we need it most. With that promise, we stand firm in God’s trust. May trust be your medicine as you walk with God, who fulfills holy desires.
Medicine for the Day
I place my trust in my Creator; my delight will continue to be in the Lord.
Sacred Song 30:5
“His anger is like the summer storm that quickly passes, but his goodwill remains for all our days. Tears of sorrow may last through the night, but weeping turns to shouts of joy at the sun’s morning light” – Psalm 30:5, FNV
In our Quechan language, we use the word a’áv-k, which means to hear, to listen, or to sense in a way that goes beyond what the eyes can see. It means listening with our hearts. When we listen with our heart, we hear what creation is telling us: that the sun will always rise. If there is sunset, there will be daybreak. Night will always bow to the morning. Sunrise brings the medicine of joy, wrapping us in the promise that God’s love outlasts the night. Sorrow may sit with us for a time; however, joy will come with the new light of day.
When the psalmist sings that tears may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning light, it is more than poetry; it is our testimony. Our ancestors knew this way. They watched the sun return after the longest nights, prayed as storms passed, and gave thanks when the ground grew green again. They trusted creation’s cycle to teach the heart that God does not leave us in sorrow without preparing joy.
Reflect on sunrise joy in your own life. There may have been nights when grief felt like an abyss, silence felt deafening, and your prayers felt unanswered. Then morning came. Light slipped through the cracks, and joy showed up in surprising ways through the kindness of a friend, the hug of a child, or in a cup of morning coffee. Sunrise joy reminds us that God’s love refreshes our spirit and strengthens the places within us that hope for new light.
Among many Indigenous peoples, the first light of morning is welcomed with prayer and song. Faces turn east as we lift our hearts in gratitude, receiving the sun as both gift and medicine. Sunrise teaches us that the hard place never has the final say and that God’s goodness greets us at the break of each morning sun. So keep listening with your heart, and let the medicine of sunrise joy lead you today.
Medicine for the Day
I listen with my heart and welcome the sunrise joy God gives.
Sacred Song 23:1-3
“Grandfather is my shepherd. My lodge will always have plenty. He gives me rest in fields of tender sweetgrass and guides me near quiet and peaceful waters. Through these good medicines, he brings strength to my body and healing to my soul. He shows me the good way to walk with firm steps on the road of life, to bring honor to his name” – Psalm 23:1-3, FNV
For my people, water has always meant more than survival. We are river people. The Colorado River has held our stories, our prayers, and our way of life for generations. We do not have to travel far to find water because the river itself has always been with us, a living presence flowing through our homelands. Water is ceremony, water is prayer, water is medicine.
The psalmist sings of waters that are restorative and peaceful, waters that give rest and healing. These still waters echo the medicine we know well. They are where God restores exhausted souls and brings peace. God, our Shepherd and our Guide, leads us to waters that refresh the body and renew the soul.
At times, our spirits grow restless. Maybe the noise of life gets overwhelmingly loud, or our thoughts start circling without relief. In these moments, God invites us to step into still waters. Not the rushing flood, but the calm stream. Here we learn to breathe again. Here, peace touches us like cool water on a tired face. Here, hope restores, and in this place, we can be renewed for the journey ahead.
In Scripture, water is holy. It washes, it heals, it delivers, it blesses, and it announces. For Quechans, the river has always been more than a resource. It is a relative, teacher, and medicine, much like the psalmist names water and sweetgrass as signs of God’s care. To say, “My lodge will always have plenty,” is to trust that God provides what sustains both body and spirit. The sweetgrass reminds us of provision, the still waters remind us of peace, and together they tell us that God’s goodness continues to provide what we need.
Medicine for the Day
I receive the medicine of still waters; God restores my soul.
Sacred Song 62:1-2
“In my inward being, I remain silent, waiting only on One Who Hears, for my victory comes from the One Who Sets Me Free and makes me whole. He alone is the rock I stand on, my deliverer, and my safe place. I will never be shaken or moved” – Psalm 62:1-2, FNV
One of the Elders once said to me, “You are sleeping, but you are not resting.”Those words left an impression because that day I learned from a wise one that rest is more than closing our eyes. Rest is also a spiritual act intended for our recalibration. Rest listens to our body and our soul, gently working to move us toward balance. It is a dangerous, slippery slope for us to keep running on empty. When our waters run low, our love becomes brittle. We become short in measure, quick to anger, fractured in our decision-making, careless with our words, and we move through life with less capacity than God intends for us.
The psalmist reminds us that true rest begins in God. “In my inward being, I remain silent, waiting only on One Who Hears.” This rest is more than closing our eyes; it opens our hearts. Such rest offers the assurance that God listens with love, caring about everything that concerns us.
Out of this assurance, rest nurtures us. It stills the inner noise and makes room for regeneration. Rest is where our thoughts slow, our hearts recline into calm, and our bodies remember they need to be tended to by God. In this space, we rediscover that God is the rock beneath us and the shelter around us.
As you move through this day, receive the medicine of rest as God’s gift to you. Rest will refresh your spirit, bring balance where it has been missing, and ground you in the truth that God is your rock, your deliverer, and your safe place. In such rest, you will never be shaken or moved, for God surrounds you in strength and crowns you with victory.
Medicine for the Day
I receive the medicine of rest, and life flows back into me.
Sacred Song 100:1-5
“Let all the earth shout for joy to Grandfather. Serve Grandfather with glad hearts. Come before him with singing and dancing. Take it to heart that Grandfather is the Great Spirit. He created us for himself. We are his people, the sheep he watches over with tender care. Enter the sacred circle and dance in step with the drum as they sing honor songs. Send up prayers of thanksgiving and bless his name. For Grandfather is good, with a love so strong it never ends. He is faithful and true to all generations to come” – Psalm 100:1-5, FNV
Gratitude is a medicine that heals the spirit. Among Indigenous peoples, giving thanks goes beyond a single prayer or gathering. Gratitude is a daily practice woven into how we greet the day, how we appreciate meals, in the way we honor creation, and in the way we tell stories that remember Creator’s goodness. Gratitude opens our eyes so that ordinary moments become holy encounters. As an orientation of the heart, gratitude sees God’s goodness in creation, in community, and in all parts of life.
The sacred song, or psalm, encourages us to bring thanksgiving into our whole being with singing, dancing, and blessing God’s name. In this way, gratitude is medicine that empowers us from within. When we exercise gratitude, we come to the wide table of God, where good things meet us. Like a drumbeat that echoes through the earth, gratitude is the heartbeat that sustains us.
Reflect for a moment. Have you ever experienced someone who is ungrateful? Truth be told, being around ungrateful people does not feel good. A life without gratitude is empty of the delight of God’s presence. Gratitude makes a difference because it reminds us that no matter what is happening, we can always find a reason to give praise to God. Gratitude can be spoken in a prayer or song, shown in actions that honor God, or shared through friendship and presence that reflect God’s love. Gratitude, in all its forms, becomes praise that honors the Lord. With every breath of thanks, we join the song of all creation.
Medicine for the Day
I walk with a grateful heart, and God’s thankfulness flows through me.
Sacred Song 133:1
“How good and beautiful it is when Creator’s children live together in harmony” – Psalm 133:1, FNV
There is a certain beauty when hearts are knitted together in unison. Harmony allows God’s presence to flow freely among us, and when God’s presence flows freely, anything and everything is possible. I was taught through the stories of my own people that unity for the tribe was never optional. Winters were endured because everyone gathered, worked, and shared. Battles were faced and survived because we banded together. Life itself depended on the circle, and not on the strength of one alone. Unity has always been the life-giving song we are called to sing together. It is a living demonstration of the Creator’s light wherever we are.
Sacred Song 133 describes the unity blessing. “How good and beautiful it is when Creator’s children live together in harmony” (verse 1). Living in harmony is more than a concept; it is a way of being. Where might you walk in greater harmony? To live this way with your relatives is what God requires and what honors our Creator. The psalmist says this blessing is like oil, fragrant and flowing, a gift that brings beauty. Unity is also like dew upon the land, refreshing and life-giving. When harmony dwells among us, our Creator commands a blessing (verse 3). Unity does not erase our differences. It gathers them like streams flowing together into one river, bringing life wherever it goes. We were made to be life-givers.
The medicine of unity teaches us to shine as one. Harmony among us becomes an incarnate testimony of our Creator’s light, visible in the way we love, forgive, honor one another, and honor all of creation. When we choose unity, we invite blessing to rest among us. Don’t you long for that blessing? Unity is the way. Unified light does more than brighten our own lives; it spreads outward, blessing homes, communities, and the world around us. Unity expressed in this way is both a gift and a calling, a reminder that we were created to reflect the beauty of our Creator together.
Medicine for the Day
I choose to live in unity, letting my light shine alongside other parts of creation that are different from me.
Sacred Song 29:11
“Grandfather gives strength and well-being to his people. He blesses them with peace and harmony” – Psalm 29:11, FNV
At sunrise on the Indian reservation, the land is tranquil, and you can feel the earth’s presence unbroken by human busyness. A bountiful peace rests on the land before any words interrupt the day and before any movement begins. This kind of peace that the land offers is not manufactured; it is received. Peace received is one of our Creator’s promises, blessing both the land and the people who walk on it.
Peace is tied to well-being. The sacred song points us to the blessing of our Creator, who shows us that peace offers completeness to life. Well-being is the fruit of peace. In a Western worldview, completeness or wholeness is understood through the balance of mind, body, and spirit. In Indigenous ways of knowing, completeness is understood through the balance of mind, body, spirit, and community. Community is inseparable from that circle. Completeness cannot exist apart from the relationships that bind us together with Creator, with one another, and with the land. Peace nourishes this way of life, blessing every part of who we are and every connection we share as people.
Though peace is a promise from our Creator, it must also be lived out. Each choice toward gentleness, kindness, grace, or listening makes peace visible in our lives and strengthens our bonds as good relatives with Creator, with one another, and with the land. Ultimately, the blessing of our Creator is revealed when peace is received and peace is shared.
Beauty and promise rest on creation at sunrise, and that same gift is offered to us, inviting a life of wholeness with Creator, with one another, and with all creation. May peace dwell within you, flow through your relationships, and become the song that lives in your spirit, offering life and joy wherever you go.
Medicine for the Day
I receive the medicine of peace. Peace is my portion, and I walk in its promise!
