Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 52-59.

When David heard that Doeg the Edomite had reported to King Saul about the help which he received from the priest Ahimelek, and what Saul did in response he wrote the first of today’s psalms.  David wrote of how God will bring do evil because they trust in their own strength and wealth rather than fearing and trusting in God.  David contrasts himself with Doeg by saying that he trusted in God and praised God for what He had done for him.  Which leads me to a phrase in Psalm 56 that is the center of what I wish to write today:

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?

The psalmist precedes that by saying that he calls out for God to be merciful when he is pursued by his enemies.  He then follows that quote by saying that they twist his words and conspire to ruin him.  But the psalmist does not fear them because he trusts in God.  Even while still facing danger from his enemies, he praises God because he puts His trust in Him.  The psalmist goes on to write that his strength comes from God and he will praise Him because he trusts that God will rescue him.  We too need not fear those who make themselves our enemies if we put our trust in God.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 45-51.

The first of today’s psalms was written for a royal wedding, but it still contains some thoughts on which I want to write.  In reading the praise which it gives the king, we see some characteristics we should seek in leaders. Leaders should strive to promote the cause of truth, humility, and justice.  They should love righteousness and hate wickedness.  If they do not exhibit these characteristics we should not follow them.   As we continue in today’s passage, the psalmist tells us to come and see what the Lord has done, to be still and know that He is God.  He calls all nations to praise and exalt Him, not because He demands it of us, but because of the great and wonderful things He has done.  The psalmist goes on to remind us that we need not fear deceivers or other wicked people when we put our trust in God, because God shines forth from where the sun rises to where it sets.  Which brings me to a thought that should make you realize how great the area where God can be found is: since the earth is a globe, there is no place where the sun does not shine so there is no place where God’s presence cannot be felt.  When danger threatens, God will come and will not be silent.

Finally, the psalmist calls on God to cleanse him from his sin, to purify his heart and strengthen his spirit.  He asked God to restore the joy which he got from knowing God and to cause him to willingly serve God.  I seek to make the psalmist’s prayer mine.  Once God has cleansed us and renewed us we will be able to teach sinners His ways so that they turn back to Him.  When we read that we can easily fall into the trap that we teach sinners because we are better than they, but really the sense here is that we were just like them and are now only different because of God’s actions.  God cleansed and renewed us.  We only have something to teach others because of what God has done to, and for, us.  Our current status as followers of God has nothing to do with how great we are, instead it serves to illustrate how great God is.  If God transformed us, He can transform others.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 38-44.

Throughout today’s psalms the psalmist speaks of the depression he is experiencing.  In some of them that depression is related to poor health, in others it is because of the hostility of others.  In some of the psalms, he acknowledges that his suffering results from his sin, in others, he does not know what caused his suffering.  However, in all of them the psalmist recognizes that he must turn to God to receive relief.  If his suffering resulted from sin, he must turn from his sin and beg God for forgiveness.  In all cases, he must praise God and publicly acknowledge that he puts his trust in God.  When we suffer the pangs of depression, we must nevertheless put our trust in God and praise Him.  Even in the pits of deep depression let us remember God and put Him first in our lives.  As we have regard for the weak and oppressed, as we offer what help we can to them, God will send us His light and make us feel His faithful care.  When others see us put our faith in God in our times of trouble they will learn to fear the Lord and put their trust in 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 32-37.

As I read through the psalms I am never quite sure how I want to approach writing about them.  Sometimes I want to take one of the psalms for the day and expound upon it.  Other times, I pick out a theme which I see in all of the psalms for the day and write about that.  Today, I want to take phrases out of each of today’s psalms and express some thoughts about each of them.  Psalm 32 begins our reading for today with something which expresses the joy of the Gospel message:

Blessed is the one
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.

And this sums up the great joy I receive from knowing that the blood of Jesus covers my sins, that because of the sacrifice of, and by, Christ, God has forgiven my sins.  Then in Psalm 33, the psalmist tells us this:

Let all the earth fear the Lord;
    let all the people of the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it came to be;
 he commanded, and it stood firm.

The Lord spoke and all that is came to be, which should lead us to both fear and revere Him.  But there is more to it than that, God commands some things to stand firm, and they stand firm against any efforts others may throw against them.  He commands other things to crumble, and they crumble.  The psalmist points out that a king is not saved by the size of his army, but stands or falls according to the degree to which he serves God’s purposes. From Psalm 34 I pull the following two phrases, which express a theme the psalmist touches on in each of the psalms in today’s passage:

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.

Seek the Lord and cry out to Him, and He will hear our prayers and answer.  He will rescue us from the troubles we face and show us how to do His will in the face of the enemy.  I almost did not include a phrase from Psalm 35, but as I worked my way through this I realized this phrase fit the theme I am writing:

May all who gloat over my distress
    be put to shame and confusion;

While the psalmist makes this personal, I think a more general phrasing accords with his thoughts: “May all who gloat over distress be put to shame and confusion.” We all know those who gloat over the distress of others, and we should not follow their example.  Rather than gloat over the distress of others, let us attempt to offer comfort to them in their distress, even if that distress was well earned.  Instead of pulling a phrase from Psalm 36, I pulled this phrase from Psalm 37 which contains some of the same thoughts as Psalm 36:

Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

All too often we allow the apparent successes of those who do evil to get to us.  We fret and worry about why they do not seem to pay a price for the suffering which they cause.  The psalmist reminds us that the evil will be destroyed and will gain no joy from their wickedness, but those who put their trust in God will be rewarded and will receive joy from doing His will.  It is worth noting that if we truly delight in the Lord, even what others would view as suffering will bring us joy.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 23-31.

Every year when I come to this group of psalms I debate about what to write.  Today’s psalms do such a great job of expressing their thoughts that anything I can write feels like it does not do them justice.  Any way, I decided to capture a few thoughts which struck me as I read through all of them and see if I can make a coherent whole out of them.

First, as I read through Psalm 23 I have two images side by side.  In one image I see a pleasant meadow with a gentle stream running through it.  In the other image I see a shadowy forested valley with a tumultuous flooding stream rising up over the path and wolves (or something worse) howling in the shadows.  In both images I see a vague comforting shape.  In the latter image that shape is facing out into the shadows, challenging anything which might desire to come forth and face Him, while the howls go silent.  I emerge from the shadows back into the pleasant meadow where a table is set up for a picnic in the gentle shade of a tree.  We transition out of these images to realize that there was never any threat because everything and everyone belongs to God, and no one and nothing can overpower Him to take from Him what He desires to hold.  I belong to the Lord, as do those who may wish me harm.  They can only act as He allows.  Which brings us to the psalmist’s prayer that God show him His ways and teach him His paths.  Let us join the psalmist in that prayer so that we do not move off of His path into the dangerous “forest” which surrounds us.  If we allow ourselves to follow the temptation to join with the deceitful and associate with hypocrites, we will find ourselves off of the path to which the Lord is guiding us.  When we leave that path, we move out of His light and into danger.  Yet the psalmist reminds us that if we stay in the light of the Lord, we need fear no one, the wicked are frightened by God’s light and do their best to stay out of it.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 18-22.

As I read through these psalms today I realized that in many ways Psalm 18, our first psalm today, and Psalm 22, the last of today’s psalms, express pretty much the same ideas, but give us a very different emotional sense.  Psalm 18 begins with celebrating the psalmist’s trust in, and dependence on, God before going on to speak of his great distress (which he then follows by expounding on how God saves those who put their faith in Him).  Psalm 22, on the other hand, starts with the psalmist expressing his despondency in great detail before ending by declaring that he will praise God because God will save him.  We can take some lessons from the way the psalmist, in the middle of his distress when he feels like God has abandoned him, declares that God will see him through this distress and the time will come when he will praise God before men for the way in which He saved him, but today I want to focus on the theme which sort of threads its way through all of today’s psalms.  In Psalm 18 the psalmist declares that he has kept himself from sin and God has rewarded him for doing so.  I want to say that there is value in recognizing that we gain from doing as God commands, but we know from elsewhere in Scripture that no one can be blameless on their own merit.  Which is addressed by what the psalmist says in Psalm 19.  There he begs God to forgive his hidden faults and to keep him from willful sin while expounding on how wonderful God’s commands are.  Then in Psalm 20, the psalmist writes:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

He continues by saying that those who trust in material things (chariots and horses) will fall, but those who trust in God will rise up and stand firm.  By putting our trust in God, and only by putting our trust in God, we can be righteous with the righteousness which God gives to us through Christ Jesus.  Finally, Psalm 22 ends with the psalmist telling us that future generations will be told about the Lord, and they will proclaim his righteousness declaring that He has done wonderful things, that He has provided salvation to the world, He has defeated evil.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 10-17.

Today’s psalms speak about a couple of contrasting ideas.  First the psalmist writes of how the wicked have no fear of God, believing that He will not hold them accountable.  However, the psalmist reminds us that while it may at times seem that the wicked prosper, God will take action to protect the oppressed and punish the wicked.  The psalmist goes on to remind us that while the wicked strike at the foundations of justice and law and order so that it seems like the righteous can do nothing, the Lord will act and the righteous need only put their trust in Him.  I want to stress that when the foundations of law and order and justice are being destroyed the righteous only need to put their trust in God, but they do need to put their trust in God.  The solution in that situation is to turn to God, not to try to turn to some other “fix” for the problem.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 1-9.

I love today’s psalms, even though they do not exactly have a theme (which makes it hard to find something write that covers all of them).  Nevertheless, I have some thoughts about what I want to write.  Our first psalm perfectly starts the entire Book of Psalms when it tells us that blessed is the one who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.  While I believe the psalmist was almost certainly referring to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), and more specifically the laws contained in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, I also believe that we can substitute Scripture for “law of the Lord” in that thought.  So, blessed is the one who delights in Scripture and meditates on it.  Then in the second psalm the psalmist warns rulers to serve God with fear, after stating that most of them revolt against God and pay the price for doing so.  From there he goes on (I am assuming that all of these psalms were written by the same person, although that may not be the case) to tell us that those who seek shelter by God will be blessed.  God will shelter those who turn to Him.  If we call out to God, He will deliver us because His love never fails. Let us give praise to God for His righteousness and thank Him for what He has done, and will do, for us.

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