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 32-37.

    The psalmist begins today’s psalms by reminding us of the joy which comes from God forgiving our sins. In fact that sets the stage for a theme which runs through today’s psalms: how to obtain joy. One of the sources of depression and unhappiness is unconfessed sin. I want to be careful here. I am not saying that everyone who suffers from depression has sins to which they are not admitting. However, if you are suffering from depression, examine your life for any unconfessed sins and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any such sins. I also want to add that even if your depression is caused by unconfessed sins, that does not make you any worse than I. I am certainly no better than you. Perhaps I am even worse. Perhaps the fact that I do not suffer from depression is an indication that I am not as bothered by my sin as you are by yours. I am quite confident that I am no less of a sinner than you. I want to repeat that I am not saying that everyone suffering from depression has sin which they are not admitting. I do not even know that most people suffering from depression have such sins. I am just saying that some people suffer from depression because of unconfessed sin.

    I did not intend to spend that much time on that because the main focus of these psalms is joy. God offers to guide us along the best pathway for our lives. That will not be the same for each of us. It will not even be the same for any two of us. The greatest joy will come to us if we readily and willingly follow the guidance which God gives us. Part of that path is recognizing God’s greatness and praising Him for it. There is joy in praising the Lord and in boasting about His power. In the middle of explaining how God will save us from our troubles if we call out to Him the psalmist has one of those lines which, for me, sum up making the case for believing in God.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

I can, and will, make every argument I can think of for why you should put your faith in God. But until you actually do so you will not understand just how wonderful faith in God is. Until you put your faith in Him, you will not truly know that He is. When I was younger I struggled looking for evidence of God’s existence. I wanted proof that He existed. Finally one day I was contemplating my life and its utter meaninglessness. The thought went through my head, “If there is no God, I may as well kill myself.” My very next thought was, “I cannot do that to my mother.” At that moment, I realized that I could not live with the idea that the God of the Bible was not real. So, I decided from that moment on to live my life as if He was indeed real, even though I had no proof. By the end of the following week, I had the proof I had been so desperately seeking. I cannot prove to you that God exists, that can only happen when you put your faith in Him, but it has been proven to me that He exists.

    I was going to stop with the last, but as is usually the case, I skimmed over the passage for today one last time and found more advice for long-term joy and happiness in our lives. There is no reason to be envious of the wicked. They may have things we do not, and they may experience pleasures we do not, but in the end they will face suffering we would not wish on our worst enemies. There is more pleasure and joy to be found in doing the good which God calls us to do than in any of the things which the wicked may obtain. Commit our actions to God and leave our anger at others go. If your anger is justified, those it is directed against will face God’s judgment soon enough. If it is not, you may allow it to cause you to do wrong to another. Let you anger go and do the good to which God directs you.