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

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

The first of today’s psalms is a responsive reading.  I would love to hear it done by a group in several different ways.  Most groups would have the worship leader read the part which changes and the congregation read “His faithful love endures forever.”  Yet, when I read this I imagine the congregation reading the first part and the worship leader responding.  Another option which intrigues me would be having a group of people where the part being read goes from one to another.  I imagine these different ways of reading this because its message strikes me powerfully and responsive readings have become so rote that we tend to miss their power.  We need to find new and innovative ways to communicate the message which God gave His people long ago.  A message which has not, and does not, change, no matter how much some might wish for it to do so.  Let us give thanks to God for He is good.

Again today we have a theme I touched on yesterday.  We cannot escape from God’s presence no matter where we go.  There are two sides to this.  On the one hand, we cannot hide anything we think or do from God.  On the other hand, we cannot be any place where He is not aware of what we are experiencing and come to our aid in our time of need.  The psalmist does such a wonderful job of expressing both of these thoughts.  He even manages to capture the comfort we can feel from our inability to hide our wrongdoing from God.  An element of that comes from the fact that we need not be embarrassed to confess to God our sins: He already knows.  As important, God cares deeply for us and wishes for us to embrace the goodness He has in store for us if we do His will.  Let us welcome God’s examination of our lives and beg Him to show us what we have done, are doing, are about to do which is wrong so that we can correct our path.