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 117-118.

Everyone should praise God because He loves us deeply and faithfully.  He will never stop loving us.  His love means that we need not fear anything.  God acts for our best interest and no one and nothing can harm us against His will.  We may be outnumbered and surrounded on all sides by those who wish us harm, but we can stand and fight for the cause to which God directs us without fear.  God’s strength will over come whatever stands against us.  The metaphor of battle which the psalmist uses here powerfully applies to many of the problems we will face.

However, the psalmist uses a second metaphor in today’s passage, one which we often overlook.  This metaphor was applied to Himself by Jesus which often leads us to miss some of the meaning which it has.  “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.”  Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders of His day.  Those who presented themselves as the experts on doing God’s will rejected the centerpiece of God’s will.  In the same way, many of those today who strive to present a moral code for others to live by reject the central assumptions upon which any actual moral code must be built.  In pre-modern buildings, all parts of a building were aligned off of the cornerstone.   If the cornerstone was not cut properly and then positioned properly, all of the rest of the building would not line up properly and will fall apart.  In the same way, if try to build our lives without God we will end up with a misshapen mess that constantly falls apart around us.

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 108-116.

Put your confidence in God and sing His praises with all of your heart.  The psalmist writes about how he joyfully rises with the dawn to praise God to everyone.  He does this in the face of those who curse him despite his attempts to do good to them.  I was going in a different direction here, but it just struck me that the psalmist is writing about people who have started to believe the lies they tell about him, that is why they curse him.  We face the same thing today.  People convince themselves that their behavior is perfectly OK, then call you a hater when you point out how destructive their behavior actually is.  They convince themselves that those who attempt to point out how they hurt themselves with their behavior hate them for things beyond their control.  So, they curse such people with curses like those listed by the psalmist.  What they do not realize is that they are calling such curses down upon themselves.  Nevertheless, let us continue to show such people God’s love, not the false love they demand from us.  

Once again I am not sure how I am going sure how I am going to get the idea in my mind written down here, but I am going to try.   I always hesitate when I write something like the previous sentence because I am afraid that I am suggesting that, if I do a good job you should praise me.  However, the fact of the matter is that I write such things to make clear that if you find what comes after insightful or useful, the praise goes to God, not to me.  Which brings me into the point I want to make.  Those who fear the Lord will do good.  This contains a real paradox.  If we fear the Lord we will do His will out of fear of what He will do to us if we do not.  But as we do His will, we experience His love and love drives out fear by making us realize that He wants what is best for us.  Which leads us to do God’s will in order to return to Him His love.  But as we continue on this path we realize that there is nothing we can do for Him which He needs from us.  Which cycles us back to His love.  He gives us commands because He loves us and His commands instruct us to do what is in our own best interest.  

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 105-107.

Today’s psalms focus on praising God for what He has done.  Psalms 105 and 106 describe how God cared for Israel from Abraham through the Exile.  The psalmist calls on us to praise God for these wonderful things which He has done.  Reviewing these great deeds of God reminds us that His love is faithful even when we are not.  Then in Psalm 107 the psalmist calls on all who have experienced God’s redemption to speak up.  If God has done great things for you tell others about it.  Help them see how God could save them from their troubles.  The wise will see that history demonstrates God’s great love for the righteous.

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 98-104.

Today’s psalms all share a common theme.  Some of them have other themes as well, but they all share one theme.  They call on us, and all of Creation, to praise the Lord.  All should praise the Lord because He acts with justice and righteousness.  In many ways these follow on after yesterday’s declaration that praising God brings joy.  This comes about because He made us and we belong to Him.  God is good and His love and faithfulness continue forever.  Each generation has the opportunity to experience God’s love.

I want to put special focus on Psalm 101 because it provides us a guide to what being truly righteous involves. Here are the steps which will lead us there.

• Live a life of integrity, even in private.
• Refuse to look at anything vile or vulgar.
This one can be tough. Sometimes we feel that we need to read the details about a terrible crime in order to know if the accused is actually guilty. But doesn’t it often turn out that we had no reason to actually pass judgement on the accused one way or the other?
• Have nothing to do with those who deal crookedly.
Even when their crooked dealings have nothing to do with our connection to them they may be able to use us to further their crimes or we might inadvertently profit from them.
• Reject perverse ideas and stay away from evil.
This one is similar to the previous. Staying away from evil makes us less likely to be tempted by it.
• Do not tolerate those who slander others.
• Do not endure conceit and pride, in yourself or others.
• Do not hire those who practice deceit and do not hang around with those who routinely lie.
• Search out faithful, righteous people with whom to spend your time.
They will encourage you to live a life of integrity and call you to account when you are tempted to do wrong.

This reads as such a simple formula. Yet is much harder than it looks.

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 90-97.

The psalmist reminds us that our lives are short.  In the scheme of history we live for but a moment.  We do not have much time to do God’s will, do not waste the time that you have.  This reminder sets the stage for the two intertwined themes which fill most of the rest of today’s psalms.  The more we praise God and thank Him for what He has done the more we experience His joy.  And, what has God done for which we should thank Him?  He protects those who trust Him.  If we put our faith into action (because if our faith does not cause us to act, it is not really faith), we will not fear.  The psalmist does a great job of summing up the sources of human fears and shoes us that our faith in God will remove those fears.  Human nature causes us to fear what might come at us out of the dark; we fear the inability to see where there might be danger that we could avoid if only we knew it was coming.  Human nature also causes us to fear dangers we see coming that we cannot avoid; the fear that happens when you see a car coming around the corner too fast and know that it will crash into you.  The psalmist reminds us that if we truly trust God we will not fear these things because we know that God controls the outcome.  If we give Him control, whatever happens will further His will and bring us joy.

I was going a different direction with this, but when I got to that point I was reminded of this:  My Mom served others all of her life.  She constantly looked for ways she could be of service.  Even in the last few years of her life she did so.  When she essentially lost her vision to macular degeneration, she still found ways to be of service.  However, all of that stopped, or so I thought, almost a year before her death.  She suffered with a relatively mild form of dementia towards the end and was physically unable to care for herself.  So, she could no longer carry on conversations, partly because of her failing memory and partly because she did not trust what she remembered.  Further she could no longer do anything for others.  She had to allow the nurses and aides to do for her.  I did not understand why God did not take her, her joy in life had been serving Him and I did not see her doing anything for Him anymore because she could not.  Then we got word that she was unresponsive.  I went to see her and realized that even though she could no longer respond to our presence, she knew we were there.  So, I and my siblings took turns staying at her side (others among my siblings spent more time at her side than I did).  I observed how heartbroken one of the aides was to see that my Mom was dying and realized that even in the state she had spent the last months my Mom had still been serving God.  Her faithful witness unto the end had lifted the spirits of those caring for her.  No matter how helpless you think that you are you serve God’s purposes on this earth.  Take joy in that fact until the end, until God calls you home to be with Him.

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 82-89.

As I read the first two psalms of today’s passage they made me think of a message from God different than the one I think the psalmist intended.  The first addresses those who think they are above everyone else and should direct others decisions.  Those who think they are the experts to whom everyone else should listen.  An examination of their record indicates that instead of doing good they hand down judgments which favor the wicked.    Then in the second the psalmist addresses Israel’s enemies, those who seek to destroy God’s people.  It struck me that today it addresses not just those who seek to destroy the Jewish people or the nation of Israel.  It speaks to me today of those who want to eliminate the godly from our society.  But they are not just coming after those who act righteously, they seek to drive God from the world.  The storm they are unleashing will demolish them rather than those at whom they seek to aim it.  God will not be, cannot be, harmed by their actions and He will defend those who rely on Him.

There is another theme which runs through these psalms.  I am not sure that I can capture it in coherent thought, but I am going to try.  The psalmist cries out his longing to be in the presence of God, a longing which hopefully we share.  The psalmist describes how you can develop such a longing, and why you should wish to do so, if you do not already have it.  There is joy which comes from walking with the Lord, from being close to Him that surpasses anything else you can experience.  If we but ask Him, God will teach us His ways.  Let us call on God to restore and revive us, not for the first time, but again and again.

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 78-81.

Today’s psalms describe the suffering which the people of Israel experienced because they did not faithfully follow God’s commands.  The first psalm starts by describing how God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, how He provided them with water in the desert.  Yet despite God providing them with water they did not believe He could provide them with food.  How often do we do the same thing?  God miraculously meets one of our needs, then, a short time later, we refuse to trust Him to provide for another one of our needs.  After experiencing His great blessings, we question His power to help us again.

Further on in that first psalm I am reminded of the Holocaust and the establishment of the modern nation of Israel.  Each of these psalms reminds us that we will suffer when we turn from God, but that God is prepared to forgive us and rescue us if we turn our hearts once more to Him.  One of the great points in these psalms comes when the psalmist cries out to God requesting that He turn the people back to Him.  Let that be our prayer, that God would fill us with His Spirit and turn us to Him so that we might do His will.

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 72-77.

In 1 Timothy 2 Paul tells us to pray for our rulers and government authorities.  Psalm 72 gives us guidance as to what those prayers should contain.  We should pray that those in government have the same love for justice and righteousness which God has.  We should pray that they be fair to the poor and rescue the needy from their oppressors.  We should pray for the prosperity of the nation, understanding that such is dependent on the previous things.  We should even pray for our government to be dominant in the world, exercising power over other nations, but only insomuch as it pursues justice and righteousness and defends the oppressed.

When we start to envy the wicked rich we have lost focus on what is important.  While it may seem like they have it all together, and perhaps they gain everything they desire living the life God intends for us is much better.  Even if the wicked truly get everything they desire such is only the case because they do not desire the things which truly bring happiness.  When we envy the wicked we become bitter and torn up inside.  Healing comes from seeking out God’s sanctuary and the fellowship of those who love Him.  Then we will remember what is truly important to us and be inspired to cling to that which truly brings happiness.

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 68-71.

Today’s psalms appear to have been written by someone suffering from depression and/or overwhelmed by their life circumstances.  I do not generally experience the sort of trial which the psalmist was experiencing here, which makes it difficult for me to connect with most of what he writes here.  However there are some things scattered throughout these psalms which do connect for me.  As a note, this is another of those times where what I write will be in the order it came to me, not the order it appears in the passage.

As I said, I do not often suffer the level of sadness described by the psalmist here.  But I saw something of the sort of person I want to be, and don’t want to be, in what the psalmist wrote.  He wished that one person would show him pity, would turn and comfort him.  I pray that no one of my acquaintance ever feels themselves in the same position.  I want to comfort those who need comfort and show pity to those who need it.  I hope that I never hurl insults which break someone’s heart, or even bruise it.  I wish for God to transform me into his image, into the image of the one Who is Father to the fatherless, defender of widows, and Who puts the lonely into a family.  I pray that God make me an example to all who witness my actions.  No, that is not quite right.  I know that God will make me an example.  I pray that He transforms me into an example of one who shows His love to those around them.