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.
We could easily mistake that for promising us wealth if we trust in God, but that only happens if you overlook what taking delight in the Lord means. If we delight in the Lord, then the desires of our heart will be turned from the material to the things of God. In many ways, we can evaluate how well we have succeeded in taking delight in God by how much the desires of our hearts are material things. By that standard I have a long way to go. I pulled one final phrase from Psalm 37:
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
For those who are evil will be destroyed,
but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.
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.