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

I am struggling with a lot of stress in my life right now.  So, today’s two psalms really lifted my spirits.  I am not quite sure how to express why that is the case, but part of it comes from reading them as if the break between the psalms came after Psalm 118:1, rather than before:
Praise the Lord, all you nations;
    extol him, all you peoples.
 For great is his love toward us,
    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.
Let everyone praise the Lord. let everyone from every nation praise Him because of His great love for us, and let us thank Him because He is good.  The psalmist then goes on in 118 to tell us that when he cried to the Lord, the Lord brought him into a good space.  He reminds us that when the Lord is with us we should not fear, because who, or what, can threaten us when the Lord defends us?  It is better to put our trust in the Lord than in any human being, even if they are a powerful government official.  We may be surrounded on all sides by trouble, but if we trust in the Lord we will cut through those troubles with ease.  Even though I see no way through the troubles around me, I know that I will soon be able to proclaim what the Lord has done to take those troubles from me.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 108-116.

Today’s psalms do not really fit together with a theme, but they strike me nonetheless.  In the first psalm, Psalm 108, the psalmist sings praise to God and acknowledges that he will only succeed with God’s help.  Psalm 109 was interpreted by Peter as applying to Jesus (and referring to Judas as the enemy here described).  The psalmist refers to enemies who returned evil for good and hatred for offers of friendship.  Which reflects accurately on Christ’s life and what the Jewish leaders, and Judas, did to Him.  I am not going to continue to lay out specifics from each psalm in today’s reading, but the psalmist goes on praise the Lord and to call on us to praise Him.  As we live this life, the psalmist instructs us not to seek glory for ourselves, but rather to direct all glory towards God.  Do not credit me for any good thing I may have done, or that I may do in the future.  If I do, or have done, any good thing, give credit, and glory, to God for it.  Credit, and praise, is due to God for any good you think I have done.  Just as the psalmist says, I love the Lord because He has heard my cries and rescued me from 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 105-107.

Most of the Psalms praise God, or call on us to praise God.  Today’s psalms certainly do so.  Today, the reading begins with
“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
    make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him;
    tell of all his wonderful acts.“
That is a theme which is continued through all three of the psalms in today’s reading.  The psalmist tells us to remember the wonders which God has done: the miracles He has performed and the judgements He has pronounced.  He goes on to tell us to give thanks to God for His goodness and remind us that God’s love endures, no matter what we do.  The psalmist describes how the Israelites rebelled against God despite what He had already done for them, yet God still delivered them from the Egyptians pursuing them.  When He did that, they believed His promises and sang His praise.  Yet, they soon forgot and sinned against Him once more.   The psalmist points out that this led God to say that He would destroy them, and that He only refrained from doing so because His chosen one stood in the breach before Him.  In this case, God’s chosen one was Moses, but it foreshadows the way in which God’s Chosen One, Jesus, stands in the breach for us today.  God chose Jesus to save us so that we might give thanks to Him.  Once God has saved us, the psalmist tells us that we should tell others what God has done for us.  I cried to the Lord in my trouble and He saved me from my distress.  I will give thanks to God for His unfailing love and tell of His wonderful deeds to all who will listen.  If you have been similarly experienced God’s redemption, tell those you meet so that they might come to know Him.

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.

In most of today’s psalms, the psalmist tells us to sing praises to God.  He starts by reminding us that God has revealed His righteousness to all of the peoples on earth, and to all people.  God has shown them how He will save them.  Further, we should sing to God, we should praise God with all of our talents, or even with our lack of talents, because He has established equity (fairness) and done what is just and done what is right.  God establishes the very idea of equity, the idea of just, and the idea of right, without Him those words have no meaning.  God made us and called us as His.  We should joyfully sings to Him and about Him because of this.  The psalmist goes on to proclaim that he will try to lead a blameless life.  He will not show approval for the vile and perverse.  He will try to avoid those who do evil and are faithless.  He will call on God to strengthen him to achieve these goals, and praise God for keeping him from sin.    Then in the one psalm today where he does not call on us to sing and praise God(Psalm 102), he cries out to God and requests delivery from his troubles.  After which he praises God for the way in which God answers the prayers the destitute.  The psalmist returns to telling us to praise God by singing joyfully because He has compassion on those who fear Him, just as a father has compassion for his children.  Finally, the psalmist praises God for creating all that is with wisdom.  Let us join the psalmist in praising God for making all that lives, and all that is.

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.

There are a couple of different themes in today’s psalms, but I want to focus on the call to sing and make music in order to praise God.  In Psalm 92, the psalmist writes:
“It is good to praise the Lord
    and make music to your name, O Most High,…”
He goes on to say that God makes us glad by His deeds: God punishes the wicked, but the righteous flourish in His presence.  The wicked think that the One who made the eye and the ear cannot see their wicked acts and cannot hear as they plot evil, but God will give them just recompense for the evil they have done.  He will undermine their plots.  The psalmist goes on to write in Psalm 95:
“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.”
He made the sea and formed the dry land.  Let us listen to His voice and sing His praises.  So,
“Sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth.”
For the Lord is great and worthy to be praised.  His splendor and majesty, His strength and glory put all other gods to shame.  The Lord reigns and He judges all people with equity.  Everyone should rejoice in the Lord:
“Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
    and praise his holy name.”

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.

The psalmist challenges rulers by comparing them to gods who defend the unjust and favor the wicked.  He points out that God demands the opposite from rulers who wish His blessing.  A good government defends the weak and upholds the cause of the oppressed.  It rescues the weak and needy from the hand of the wicked.  As I read further, I felt like the psalmist was talking to the people of today, to those who today are seeking to destroy Israel as a nation and eliminate those whose ancestry might lead them to attempt to rebuild it.  The psalmist begs God to cover with shame those who seek the destruction of Israel and her people.  But here is where we see that our God is different.  The psalmist, as we should as well, seeks them to be covered in shame, not so that they will suffer, but so that they will seek the Lord.  Oh that God’s enemies would realize that being a servant in God’s house is more desirable than having access to all of the pleasures obtainable living among the wicked.  Let us join the psalmist in begging God to give us an undivided heart, a heart which seeks only the good which comes from obeying the Lord for those who persecute us, not vengeance for the suffering we, or others, have suffered at their hands.  The psalmist tells us that God will record people of all nations as acknowledging, as serving, Him.  Let us strive to seek to show them why they should do so by making His faithfulness known to all generations.

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.

The psalmist reminds us that God asks two things of us.  First, that we obey His commands.  Second that we tell the next generation about His power and the wonders He has done, both those we have witnessed and those we were told about by those who went before us.  God asks this of us so that the next generation will put their trust in Him, just as we have done (at least, I hope that you have put your trust in God as I strive to do).  The psalmist goes on to describe how the nations, the peoples of this world, are asking “Where is their God?”.  They attack those who believe in God and seek to serve Him, belittling the idea that He even exists.  Then in the last of today’s psalms, he tells us that if only we would listen to God and follow His ways, He would subdue those who hate Him.  So, let us cry out to God and ask Him to make His face shine upon us, let us listen to what He asks of us, so that we might be saved.  Then He will act and transform us into His likeness, and heal our society.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 72-77.

The first of today’s psalms says that it is “of Solomon”.  I am unsure if that means it was written by Solomon, or that it was written about Solomon.  In either case, it gives a blessing to rulers who follow its guidance.  If a ruler defends those who suffer misfortune, rescues the children of the powerless, and crushes those who oppress others, good things will come to him and the people over whom he rules.  From there we go into a series of psalms which can build up our hope and faith in difficult times.  In Psalm 73, the psalmist warns against envying the arrogant and wicked who seem to prosper.  It may seem like striving to do God’s will and avoid wickedness serves no purpose, that we suffer doing God’s will to no benefit.  However, the psalmist warns us that the prosperity of the wicked merely masks the fate which God has planned for them.  The good things which God has in store for those who serve Him far outweigh the short term pleasures of the wicked.  The psalmist goes on in later psalms to paint a picture which reminds me of things happening today.  He describes how those who hate God have sought to destroy every place and thing which is used to honor God.  They seek to crush any who worship Him.  However, the psalmist reminds us that God will choose the time when He will judge and make the world quake.  God’s enemies may seek to make us fear them, may seek to cause us to fear worshiping Him, but God alone should be feared, for none can stand before Him when He is angry with them.  In our distress, let us turn to the Lord and remember His mighty acts.  Let us meditate on what He has done in the past when it feels like He is letting us fall.  Then we will praise Him and know that He will save us once more.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 68-71.

As I read today’s psalms I was drawn once more to write about Psalm 69, although I will be adding some thoughts from the other psalms in today’s reading.  However, I am going to start with some thoughts from Psalm 68.  There the psalmist tells us that God will be a father to the fatherless and protect widows.  Further, he tells us that God will place the lonely among those who will be family to them.  What are your needs?  Turn to God and He will provide for them.  Having written that I come to my thoughts on Psalm 69.  The psalmist cries out to God because he is at the end of his resources.  He is overwhelmed and feels like he is about to drown.  He acknowledges that he has sinned and begs God to not allow his sin to bring shame upon others who also call upon God.  The psalmist recognizes that his enemies are attacking him because of his desire to serve God, but that they will attempt to use his failings to belittle all who seek God.  I understand his pleadings to mean him asking God to help him overcome his sins so that they cannot be used to make all who seek God look bad.  In the same way, I ask God to give me the discipline and self-control to not do that which can be used against those who seek to do His will.  God knows my sins, I beg of Him that He take them from me so that they cannot be used to make faith in Him seem hypocritical and something of which to be ashamed.  If I must face shame for my faith in God, so be it, but I ask that God not allow others who seek Him to be shamed by my actions.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 60-67.

The psalmist praised God through many of today’s psalms.  We should echo that praise today. In Psalm 65:3 he writes,

When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave[p] our transgressions.

The translation note indicated by the [p] in that quote says that the word(s) translated as “forgave” could be translated as “made atonement for”.  I suspect the translators chose “forgave” here because it makes the translation better poetry.  However, I think “made atonement for” gives us a better idea of what the psalmist was truly saying.  Sooner or later, our sins will overwhelm us, we will be crushed under the weight of guilt for our evil actions.  God did not just forgive us, He made atonement for our sin.  He made it possible for us to forgive ourselves.  And for that we should praise God.  Then is Psalm 66 the psalmist tells us that God has refined us like silver.  He passed us through fire and water in order to cleanse us of all impurities.  God did not refine us in order to make atonement for us.  He made the atonement when Christ died on the cross.  No, God refined us in order to make us useful for His purposes.  So, let us join with the psalmist in telling others what God has done for us!

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