For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
I am reminded today of a thought I had a while back about the proverbs. They are often designed for us to examine ourselves. If I am trying to determine whether I am wise, I should consider whether others consider me discerning. If I want to persuade others to my point of view, I need to speak pleasantly, not with hostility. This approach to reading proverbs really helps me to see a little more than the obvious in them.
This psalm reminds us that we should be focused on God the way a slave focuses on a beloved master (I would use the more correct “mistress” her, but the connotations in modern English just do not work). I will strive to keep my attention focused on God, so that I may respond to every hint as what He wants me to do next and to the least sign that my current actions displease Him.
This story has always struck me. Peter and John were not rich men, but they saw what this man truly needed. But Peter did not heal the lame man in order to bring glory to himself. He did so in order to bring glory to Jesus, and through Him to God. All of our actions, whether they be miraculous or merely mundane, should be done for the purpose of bringing glory to God. As I discussed in my comment on the psalm, let us keep our focus on God and doing what He wants us to do.
It is interesting that over the course of David’s story we are presented with a negative image of Joab. Yet here, and in several other places, Joab gave David advice which David would have been better off to have followed. Joab advised David against taking the census, but followed David’s instructions and conducted the census. It turned out that Joab was right and David sinned by conducting the census, a sin which led to plague throughout Israel.