Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 98-104.

The psalmist calls on the whole earth, everything and everyone in it, to praise God.  Everything that is was created by Him.  Let us sing of God’s love and justice, of the marvelous things He has done.  The psalmist tells us to praise God by telling others what He has done and by singing His praises.  However, the psalmist tells us that praising God involves more than just speaking and singing.  If we wish to truly praise God we will not give our approval to anything vile, nor will we have anything to do with that which is evil.  We will not tolerate those who are haughty and proud, we will confront those who slander others in secret.  Instead, we will focus our eyes upon the faithful and blameless, seeking to imitate them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 90-97.

Today’s psalms have the theme that the Lord reigns; God is in charge.  He will avenge those whom the wicked oppress.  If only they would hear His voice and turn to Him, they would not need to suffer.  God is speaking to us today.  Let us listen to Him and not harden our hearts against His commands.  Those who love Him will praise His name. I will join the psalmist in praising God’s name.  His deeds make me glad.  Put your trust in God as your refuge and your shelter.  Then you will not fear the terrors at night, nor attacks during the day.

When I started today’s blog, I was at a complete loss until I realized that several of these psalms contained the words “The Lord reigns.”  That led me to write the previous paragraph.  Then, as I read through these psalms to see what else to write, they began to lift me up as I read the various ways in which the psalmist called on us to praise God.  There is a joy which comes from praising God which cannot be explained to anyone who has not experienced it.

I use 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 this I was struck by several things.  The first psalm today tells us that rulers have been given their authority by God (my reading between the lines and bringing some things in from other parts of the Bible) in order to defend the weak and the fatherless and to uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed.  If they fail to do these things they will suffer God’s judgement.  The second of today’s psalms beg God to strike down His enemies, those who conspire against His people.  Then it takes an interesting turn: the psalmist asks God to do so in order that those He is judging will seek His name.  Let us think and act similarly so that when we seek the downfall of those who do evil we do so in order to turn them to God.

Later in these psalms the psalmist cries out to God asking Him to restore us, to revive us again.  That phrase, which appears throughout the Psalms inspired a great hymn.  That hymn contains references to the other portion of today’s psalms I wanted to touch on.

I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.

Which is referenced in yet another great hymn.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 78-81.

Teach the next generation the things which God has done, and not just the things recorded in the Bible.  If we teach each generation the ways in which God has worked, both in the depths of history and in our own lifetimes, perhaps the next generation will depart from God as so many have in the past.  As I read these psalms I was struck that we appear to be living in a time when God’s people have forgotten Him and are beginning to see the results of turning away from Him.  And yet these psalms give me hope for the future.   The psalmist reminds us how simple it is to obtain God’s redemption.  We need only listen to Him and follow His ways.  Then He will quickly turn His hands against our foes.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 72-77.

The psalmist tells us that it may seem like the wicked are victorious and that they will never fall, but that we should not be fooled by such appearances.  What he writes in Psalm 74 really speaks to me about our society today.  God’s enemies are seeking to crush all worship of Him. It even seems as though their onslaught cannot be stopped.  They have destroyed many bastions where God was worshiped and driven His worshipers out.  They make examples of those who defy them by worshiping God and nothing seems to slow their victories.  Nevertheless, we who worship God know that He has power over all of the earth and that His enemies will be victorious for only so long as it serves His purpose.  Let us not lose faith in Him.  If we put our hope in Him, we will see that hope fulfilled.  Psalm 73 reminds us that when we begin to think that the wicked will always prosper and that there is no value in following God’s commands we need to meditate on His words and spend time in fellowship with Him and with those who worship Him.  When we do that God will show us the value of following His commands, and the fate of those who reject Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 68-71.

There are a few things I want to touch on from today’s passage, but I am not sure I am going to be able to connect them as I write.  All of today’s psalms represent prayers which we should make to God at one point or another in our lives (and probably at more than one point).  The psalmist cried out to God begging that God not allow others who put their hope in God and those who seek God be put to shame because of his actions and the suffering which he endured.  Let us make a similar plea to God, that He keep us from doing that which will bring shame on those who trust in Him, but also that He turn back on our enemies the ways in which they slander us by misrepresenting our words and actions.  And, let us beg Him to protect His faithful from being blamed for our failings.  Of course, that also means that we must open ourselves up and allow His Spirit to guide our actions. Well, when I started writing this I thought I would talk about some of the other things which the psalmist touched on in these psalms, but I feel that this is where I should end.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 60-67.

When I first read through these psalms I felt like today’s blog was going to be hard to write.  Then I read through them again and realized that they had two closely related themes, or perhaps three.  When facing challenges, troubles, or persecution, call out to God for aid and He will provide it.  Then praise God for the many mighty things He has done for you.  Finally, recognize that all of your accomplishments come by the grace of God: if He had not blessed you, all of your strength and skill would have been insufficient to the task.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 52-59.

As I read today’s psalms I was going to write one thing about them, but when I re-read them to put my thoughts in order that did not quite fit.  So, I will just start writing about the things which seem the most important to me.  In Psalm 53 the psalmist tells us that those who say there is no God are fools.  We can easily dismiss this as applying to someone else, but the psalmist goes on to say that no one does good and that everyone has turned from God.  We must acknowledge our sin and turn back to Him each day.  Going back to Psalm 52 and reading on through these psalms we see that the psalmist warns against wallowing in evil.  Instead let us call on God to save us and transform us from our evil tendencies.  Then we can call on God when we face troubles and persecution.  If we seek to do His will He will rescue us from those troubles.  When fear begins to overwhelm us, let us put our trust in God.   If we truly trust God, we need fear nothing and no one else.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 45-51.

When I started reading through these psalms I had an idea about what I wanted to write, but then I came to Psalm 50 verse 16:

But to the wicked person, God says:

“What right have you to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips?

And I was struck by the number of times that people who ordinarily want nothing to do with the Bible quote from it when they think that they can use it to support their otherwise godless position on some issue.  There are many examples of those to whom the psalmist is referring.  Politicians, and others, who promote abortion but quote the Bible to support some other policy are but one such example.

When I read the passage I commented on in the previous paragraph, I was going to comment on just it.  Then I got to Psalm 51, which I strive (often unsuccessfully) to make my daily prayer.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
…
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit,

I pray that each of you reading this will make this your prayer as well. Let God open your lips so that your mouth may praise His name.  God does not desire our sacrifices, what He wants from us is a broken and contrite heart, repentant of our sins so that He can heal us and make us whole.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 32-37.

Psalm 32 tells us that those whose sins are forgiven are truly blessed.  The psalmist follows that up bu reminding us that in order for our sins to be forgiven we must acknowledge those sins and confess them to God.  This is very closely related to one of my favorite verses about faith is in this set of psalms. Psalms 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  It really sums up what we need to do to know God, to know that He exists and is as wonderful as those who put their faith in Him say that He is.  We cannot truly know that God exists, we cannot witness the evidence for His existence until we admit that we have sinned and choose to follow His commands.  In Psalm 36 the psalmist tells us that the wicked are unable to detect their own sins.  This should strike close to home if we think that we are better than others.  Perhaps we think we are better than those others because we are too proud, and too wicked, to see our own sins.

Acknowledge your sins, your failures, your wickedness, confess those sins to God, repent of those sins, turn from your wickedness and do good, and taste the wonderfulness of God’s forgiveness.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.