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 136-142.

Every time I read Psalms 136 I imagine it being done as a congregational responsive reading.  Today, I actually pictured a large outdoor gathering, perhaps in a stadium.  I am imagining the leader being amplified by a microphone and thousands of people responding “His faithful love endures forever” with the final line being both the amplified leader and the crowd shouting that line.  I hope you can form that image in your head and feel how powerful it would be.

God has plans for our lives and He will work them out.  Psalms 139 describes how God knows everything we do and everywhere we go.  He uses that knowledge to shape our lives according to His plan for us.  He began that shaping before we were born, while we were still in our mother’s womb.  If we choose to do God’s will, that knowledge brings us joy and comfort, because we know that even the things that happen that we don’t like serve God’s purpose and make us better able to serve Him and share His love.  On the other hand, if we are tempted to rebel against God, the psalmist reminds us that there is no place we can go to do anything of which God will be unaware.    If we rebel, God will still use our actions to accomplish His purpose.  We can choose to serve God’s purpose and experience the joy of seeing His plans come to fruition.  Or, we can rebel against God and experience the suffering of seeing His plans come to fruition.

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.

God’s love is powerful, unfailing, and faithful.  Therefore, every person, and every group of people, should praise the Lord.  Those who fear the Lord should remember that God’s love is enduring and thus they need not fear anything else.  If God is for us, what can people do to us?  I want to circle back around to the power of God’s love.  We tend to think of power in terms of violence and destruction, but the power of God’s love is the power of building and uplifting.

In that light, I want us to look at what is going on around us and think about it differently.  There is the pandemic going on  There are the riots and looting accompanying protests  Protests which result from the abuse of power by the police.  I could go on.  Yet, the psalmist tells us that this is the day that the Lord has made.  We should rejoice and be glad in it.  Instead of viewing what is going on as a trial and a difficulty, let us view it as an opportunity to display God’s love.  Remember, today is the day that the Lord has made in love and His love is faithful.

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.

The psalmist starts the first psalm for today by proclaiming that his heart has confidence in God.  Then in the last of today’s psalms he tells us that God protects those with a childlike faith.  This context gives a great insight into what Jesus meant when He said we needed to be like a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  When a child prays for something, they do not put a lot of qualifiers on it.  They believe that God will answer their prayer out of love.  Further, once they have asked for something, they will tell people that God is going to do it.  They are not afraid that perhaps He will not do so.  We should have similar confidence.  Of course, part of that confidence in God comes from striving to live within His will so that we ask for that which serves 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 105-107.

All three of today’s psalms focus on reminding us to give thanks to God for what He has done.  The first two emphasize how, as a group, the people of Israel had time and again rebelled against God, only to turn to Him once more when they faced the consequences of their rebellion.  The two things he speaks of which hit home to me are when he speaks of their sin in worshiping Baal of Peor and then adopting the evil customs of the people in the land they were promised.  The first strikes me because I know from elsewhere that the appeal of worshiping Baal of Peor was the sexual sins which were practiced as part of that worship.  The second because the psalmist calls out that one of the evil practices was killing their own children as sacrifices.  I see both the sexual sins and the killing our children in our society today.  Our society condemns as “intolerant” and “hateful” those who call us to follow God’s plans for our sexuality and those who defend the children in the womb.

The third psalm calls on us to tell our stories of redemption.  Here the psalmist focuses on how we as individuals have sinned and been brought back to God.  Whether we were lost and homeless, or suffering incarceration because of our crimes, or suffering depression (perhaps because of our sins), or facing danger from forces of nature, let us share our stories of how God redeemed us when we cried out to Him for help.

I will share one of those times when God redeemed me.  I was managing a convenience store.  It filled my time, leaving me no social life.  I could not even reliably set aside time to go to worship services.  It did not even allow me time for a job search.  The job had become a dead end and drained me of all of my joy.  I prayed earnestly to God for relief and He brought a job opening to me which gave me fresh interest in life and a regular schedule.

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.

The psalmist calls on us to sing to the Lord, to joyfully praise Him.  The New Living Translation translates verse 6 of Psalms 98 as saying, “Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King!”  I much prefer the way the King James Version translates it, “make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.”  I prefer the latter because that is much closer to what others hear when I sing.  The psalmist is inclusive in his call to praise.  He calls for everyone and every nation to praise God.  He calls for everyone on earth to praise the Lord with gladness because of God’s justice.

After calling on everyone and everything to praise the Lord, the psalmist makes a personal commitment.  He promises to not only praise the Lord, but to refuse to look on anything vile or vulgar.  How much better off would we all be if we did the same?  He vowed that going forward he would seek out faithful people to be his companions.  I want to note that the context makes clear that he meant faithful to the Lord, not just faithful to himself.  As we seek to praise the Lord, let us separate ourselves from those who deceive and lie.  I will choose to associate with those who will encourage me to praise and serve God with all that I am.

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.

Today the psalmist calls us to praise God morning, noon, and night.  Our love for Him, and our knowledge of His live for us, should keep us from fearing the terrors of the night and from dreading the disease which stalks in darkness.  Let us thank Him when He disciplines us and turn from our sin.  The wicked thinks that God does not hear what they say or see what they do, but He that made their ears can surely hear, and He that made their eyes can certainly see.

Let us worship and bow down before the Lord.  God is supreme over all of the earth.  If only the people around us would listen to His voice today, what a difference it would make.  I read this and wonder, am I listening to His voice?  Or have I hardened my heart?  I see how people around me refuse to listen to God and wonder if I am being the example I should be?  I will strive to praise God more in all that I say and do.  And seek out ways in which I can serve 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.

Throughout history God calls on rulers to give justice to the poor and the powerless, to uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.  When rulers heed God’s call, their society has prospered.  Yet, also throughout history rulers have time and again failed to do so, have instead been the oppressors.  When the latter happens people conspire against God’s people, both the descendants of Jacob and those who serve His Son.  They seek to wipe them out completely, but fail every time.  Such things happen when God’s people stray to far from Him.

So, let us cry out to God to restore us once more to His favor.  Let us pray that he teach us His ways so that we may know His truth and live by it.  Each and every one of us needs to remember that there is A truth and that truth is God’s truth.  We live in a society which is determined to convince us that there is no truth, or that there are multiple truths: that the truth is different for everyone.

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.

It is imperative that we teach the next generation what God has done and what He commands.  It is not enough to teach them history, although that is an important first step.  They must be given context and shown how God’s wondrous love brought about His will.  Each generation must choose for themselves to set their hope in God.  If they are not taught history truly and how God brought it about, they will not believe God when He speaks to them and will not trust Him to care for them.  We see this today where parents delegated teaching their children to someone else and thought they could rely on strangers to teach their children what they needed to know.  However, this is not just an obligation for parents, each one of us must strive to teach the generations which follow after us about what God has done, how He has guided history.