I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Today’s passage begins by listing some of the families which returned to Jerusalem following the Babylonian exile. It tells us that there were descendants of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Levi. It specifically lists a few of the descendants of Levi and Benjamin, while telling us that there were a larger number of them who returned. The passage then goes on to give a more detailed list of priestly and Levitical families who returned.
The passage concludes the genealogies by giving the family tree of King Saul (including some of his descendants) and then telling the story of his death. The passage repeats how Saul killed himself after he was wounded in battle against the Philistines. He did this in order to avoid being taken captive by the Philistines. Saul and three of his sons died in this battle and the Philistines took their bodies to hang on their city walls. The men of Jabesh-gilead retrieved the bodies of Saul and his sons and gave them a proper burial.
Finally, after everyone had gone a long time without eating, Paul called everyone together and told them that God had told him that, while the ship would be lost, everyone on board would survive. He finished by telling them that the ship would run aground on an island. That night the sailors started taking soundings and discovered that the ship was entering ever shallower water. They dropped some anchors in an attempt to slow the ship. Then the sailors lowered the lifeboat and pretended that they were going to drop anchors from it. Paul warned the soldiers that if the sailors left the ship everyone else would die. The soldiers responded by cutting the lifeboat loose before the sailors could get into it.
In the morning Paul urged everyone to eat. After doing so, he blessed them all and ate something himself. Thus encouraged everyone ate something, after which they threw the last of the food stuff into the sea. At daybreak the sailors saw a sandy beach and attempted to run the ship aground there. However, on the way to the beach the ship got hung up on some rocks. The soldiers were going to kill the prisoners, but their commander wanted to spare Paul’s life and so ordered them to allow the prisoners to live. The commanding officer ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and swim to shore. He then told everyone else to grab on to planks and other pieces of the ship. In this manner, everyone got to shore safely.
What a wonderful psalm of praise, but it is more than that. It tells us some things about God and about our relationship with God. I like the NIV translation of verse 2:
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
God has used the praise of children and infants, the weakest among us, to create a stronghold against His enemies. God uses weakness to overcome the strong. Then we come to the part that should humble us all.
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?[c]
Yet you made them only a little lower than God[d]
and crowned them[e] with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
Reading that reminds me of the hymn “This Is My Father’s World. That song has much that touches my heart, but this line is the one that strikes close to my heart today.
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
When we read the first of these proverbs, let us always remember the line I closed out my devotions on psalms today: “God is the ruler yet.” The second proverb tells us that some friends are unreliable and will bring us to ruin. Let us strive to be the type of friend who sticks closer than a brother.