For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
It is a good thing to sleep well and to get enough sleep. However, those who take their “relaxation” to the point of being lazy do not have enough to eat.
The psalmist calls out to God for rescue. He expresses his frustration and desperation at the fact that his troubles have gone on longer than he thinks he can bear, but then he realizes that he can still bear the struggles. He realizes that God will rescue him. The psalmist’s trust in God is restored and he praises God for rescuing him, even though he is still in the midst of his troubles. Let us remember to do likewise, even in the middle of our struggles let us praise God for rescuing us. He has already set in motion the actions which will bring us to safety.
Abraham was the father of the Jewish nation, so Paul uses him as an example of salvation through faith. God counted Abraham as righteous because of his faith. It was through Abraham that the people of Israel first received the command to be circumcised. Yet Abraham was already counted as righteous because of his faith before he was circumcised. Circumcision was something which Abraham did as a result of his faith, not as a path to righteousness. In the same way, it is because of our faith that God will count us as righteous. That faith, and the righteousness which God gives us because of it, results in us doing the will of God. We do not do the will of God in order to be righteous, we do the will of God in response to God making us righteous.
The passage continues to describe how the various Temple duties were divided up among the various groups of priests and Levites. It emphasizes that David assigned to duties in a way that eliminated favoritism being shown. There are two elements to how he did this. First, the assignments were made in front of a large number of witnesses. Second, he used a method of random selection to choose which group was assigned which task. This is an important model for us to keep in mind when doling out prestigious tasks to various people.