For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
If you allow yourself to drink to excess with any significant frequency you will never learn wisdom. Alcohol will make a fool of you if you let it.
No one has an excuse for not knowing about God. The stars and moon at night and the sun during the day declare His glory for all to see. So do the clouds in the sky. They do not make a sound, but they stand as a silent testament to God’s greatness and glory. The psalmist goes on to remind us that we will lie to ourselves about our sins, it is only when we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives that we learn of the sins hiding in our heart.
This psalm ends with what I wish to be my prayer motto:
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you, O Lord,…
I struggle with this passage. Paul tells us that God chooses to show mercy to some and not to others. As I look at this passage longer I think the key take away is that we should not think of ourselves as better than those who do not follow God. We neither chose to receive God’s mercy, nor were/are we able to work so as to obtain it. We have received God’s mercy because He chose to show it to us, not because of any merit which we have.
The first application of this passage is that the fact that we have received God’s mercy through faith in Christ is not an indication that we are somehow superior to those who have not. We need to recognize that we are no better than anyone else. The Holy Spirit chose to work in our lives in such a manner that we would come to have faith in Christ. It is not my place to debate why He has not done so in another’s. However, I am called to pray that the Holy Spirit will do such work in the lives of those He has not yet done so. This passage convicts me to pray harder for my unsaved friends.
When Rehoboam’s grandson, Asa, took the throne he served God faithfully. Early in his reign Judah was attacked by an overwhelming army. Asa recognized that his army was inadequate to meet the threat so he called out to God for aid. God aided him and he was able to defeat the invading army. Upon returning to Jerusalem, Asa instituted religious reforms. He destroyed idols throughout the land and called the people to worship God. However, late in his reign when he was attacked by the king of Israel, he turned to the king of Aram for aid rather than relying on God.