Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 136-142.

We should give thanks to God because He is good and His love endures forever.  The psalmist gives us some examples of things which God has done which demonstrate both His goodness and His love, but each of us should think about the good things God has done for us.  If we honestly appraise what God has done for us, we will praise Him before those who seek to take His place in our lives.  But let me get back to God’s enduring love for us.  God loves us deeply and fully.  Everyone I know struggles to one degree or another with thinking that no one will love them if they truly knew who they were.  But this is a false belief, because no one can possibly know our deepest darkest secrets as well and as thoroughly as God does, yet God loves us with a love beyond our ability to fully comprehend.  So, when the psalmist asks God to search him and know his heart, he is not asking God to learn more about him.  Rather, he is asking God to reveal to him things he has hidden from himself.  Let us ask God to reveal to us the things we do, or say, or think, which He finds offensive, and then to transform us so as to remove those things from our lives.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 120-135.

The psalmist has some great points for us in today’s psalms.  When we ask ourselves where our help will come from, let us join the psalmist in saying that our help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth.  If we place our trust in Him, we will have Someone watching over us who never sleeps, not even a short nap.  He will watch over our coming and going forevermore.  Then we can join with those who rejoice at the thought of going to God’s house, and by that I do not mean the building where we gather to worship.  No, when the psalmist talks of going to the house of the Lord, he is speaking of going to the place where God dwells.  And God lives within those who trust in Him.  So, when we go to God’s house, we are going to where God’s people live in unity.  We cannot build that “house” through our own effort, not even working with the most skilled people.  If we strive to build a “house” where God’s people live together in unity without God Himself being the architect and builder, our striving will be in vain.  So, when the psalmist rejoices with those who say, “Let us go to the house of the Lord,” he is rejoicing with those rely on God to build a place of unity for His people to dwell.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 117-118.

One of the recurring themes throughout Psalms is that God’s love endures forever.  The psalmist begins by telling us that God loves us, and that the “us” to which he is referring encompasses all people.  Rather than trust in people, even those with great wealth and power, put your trust in God.  If God is with you, what can any mortal, or group of mortals, do to you?  And if you fear the Lord, He will be with you.  Every time I write about fear of the Lord, I think about what that means.  If we fear the Lord, we will do as He commands because we fear making Him angry, and we fear disappointing Him.  As a child, and even as a young man, I feared disappointing my parents.  That fear kept me from many acts which would have destroyed my life.  In the same way, I fear disappointing God…although I know that I have and do.  Yet, that fear of disappointing God inspires me to strive to change.  More importantly, it inspires me to allow Him to change me.  I fear the Lord, therefore I need fear no one and nothing else.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 105-107.

The psalmist tells us to praise the Lord and proclaim His name.  Let us make known what He has done.  That theme permeates these three psalms.  First the psalmist gives examples of what God has done to redeem His people in the past, and encourages us, no, commands us, to relay these stories to those we meet.  He talks about how those who rebelled against God were punished, although those who repented and cried out to God were delivered.  He reminds us how God’s people forgot Him again and again, only to turn back to Him when troubles arose.  The psalmist speaks of those who stood in the breach before God so that He would not destroy those who had rebelled against Him.  Those individuals both begged God to be merciful and heroically called people to turn to and obey God.  Finally, the psalmist calls on us to tell the stories of how God has redeemed us.  He gives examples of those who  suffered for their sin, then cried out to God and were delivered.  Let  us continue to tell the stories which have been passed down to us from those who served the Lord in the past.   The stories of how God worked through acts of nature and how He worked through those who stood up to others.  Let us tell the stories of how God redeemed us.  And let us be inspired to stand up like the heroes of God from the past.

He sent darkness and made the land dark—
    for had they not rebelled against his words?

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

Blessed are those who act justly,
    who always do what is right.

Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
    to make his mighty power known.

But they soon forgot what he had done
    and did not wait for his plan to unfold.

So he said he would destroy them—
    had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
    to keep his wrath from destroying them.

But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
    and the plague was checked.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
    those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
³ those he gathered from the lands,
    from east and west, from north and south.^[e]

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he delivered them from their distress.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 98-104.

The psalmist calls on us to sing to the Lord because of the marvelous things He has done.  In fact, he calls on all creation to sing and praise the Lord because He comes in judgement.  Now here’s an interesting thing.  Reading other parts of the Old Testament we see them prophesying God’s terrible, and terrifying, judgement upon our society for its many sins.  Yet, the psalmist writes that we, and all the earth, should joyfully praise God because His judgement is coming.  The psalmist sings of God’s love and His justice.  God is good and His love for those who fear Him endures forever.  God reigns and He has established equity.

This was not the first time the psalmist referred to God establishing equity, and since that word is used a lot in today’s world I wanted to look at what the psalmist means.  Most people today who use the word equity mean “equality of outcomes” when they use the word, but that is not what it means.  Equity means things being just and fair.  Which makes it hard to see how God has established equity, because the world around us often seems unfair.  So, let us look at some of the other things the psalmist says in today’s psalms.  He said that he would conduct the affairs of his house with a blameless heart, and would not look with approval on anything vile.  How many of us can truly say that we have lived up to that standard?  Do we even aspire to doing so?  He also said that he would have no part in what faithless people do, and have nothing to do with what is evil.  Do we do business with people we know do evil because they offer us the cheapest product?  Do we follow the psalmist’s advice to look for the faithful in the land and spend our time, and money, with them?  God will respond to the prayer of the destitute, and will bring about equity.  If we strive to do the things which I just pointed out, then we too will rejoice to see God’s judgement coming.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 90-97.

The first of today’s psalms contains a lesson which we all need to take to heart.

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

We must all recognize our mortality, and not only our mortality but that we only have so much time to accomplish things.  We must choose to act when the opportunity presents itself, because we may not be able to do so later.  Just as there are things which can only be done in certain seasons of the year there are also things which can only be done at certain seasons of our lives.  Even so, the Lord’s favor will rest on those who seek Him, whether in the Spring of their lives, in the Winter, or in between.  For the psalmist tells us “Today, if you would only hear His voice, you will enter into His rest.” (paraphrasing)

Later in today’s psalms, the psalmist tells us that it is good to praise the Lord, and that fools do not understand this.  So, come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.  Day after day I will proclaim His salvation and declare His marvelous deeds in front of everyone.  The psalmist calls on all creation to rejoice because the Lord is coming to judge the earth.  

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 82-89.

In the first of today’s psalms, those who created the NIV translation chose to put the word “gods” in quotes.  I am not a Hebrew scholar, but I am quite confident that there are no quotes in the Hebrew manuscripts from which this passage was translated.  I am equally confident that the translators conveyed the psalmist’s meaning accurately when they used those quotation marks here.  The psalmist warns these “gods” that ultimately God sits in judgement over them.  He then asks them how long they will defend the unjust and side with the wicked?  The psalmist demands that these “gods” defend the weak and uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed.  He goes on to remind these “gods” that they will die just like all other mortals.  As I read this I thought of those who consider themselves the elites of our society today.  They too often seem to defend the unjust and favor the wicked.  They refuse to defend the fatherless or rescue the weak.  They, like those discussed in the second of today’s psalms, conspire against God and those who serve Him.  However, as the psalmist prays, God will not remain silent.  Even now He is sending them a warning in the fires which are consuming the forests.  He will bring judgement against them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 78-81.

All four psalms today discuss God’s anger with His people when they rebel against Him.  In the first of today’s psalms the psalmist writes about how time and again the generation which God brought out of Egypt repeatedly saw God’s power displayed.  Yet, again and again they rebelled against Him.  In the next two psalms he writes about God’s people crying out to God for deliverance.  Over the last few years as I have read the Old Testament prophets I have felt like their prophecies of God’s coming judgement applied to us today.  Our society’s have sinned in terrible ways and will soon reap what they have sown.  In the same way, the psalmist writes of the Israelites reaping what they had sown.  Today, many of God’s people are echoing the psalmist’s cry, as they should:

Restore us, God Almighty;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.

Unfortunately, too many of us are failing to follow the guidance God gave us through the psalmist in the next psalm:

If my people would only listen to me,
if only they would only follow my ways,
how quickly I would subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes!

I am convinced that if we, God’s people, would listen to Him more closely, and follow His ways, rather than seeking a politician to save us, or trying to get the “right” laws enacted, we would see a transformation of ourselves, and of our nation.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.