Monthly Archives: June 2022

Daily Bible Study

June 21, 2022 Bible Study — We Can Walk Securely Where God Guides Us

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 23-31.

Psalm 23 is beloved for good reasons.  The imagery used by the psalmist communicates God’s love for us in ways which are both comforting and complete.  However, we can miss some of what the psalmist is saying because so few of us know anything about shepherding.  Fortunately, the some of the other psalms in today’s passage speak on the same theme. Let’s start with that first phrase: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing”                                                               The sheep trust the shepherd, and we must trust the Lord.  Just as a shepherd guides the sheep and teaches them the paths to take, we must allow God to guide and teach us.  This Universe belongs to God, as does everything, and everyone, in it.  Therefore, if we trust in God, He can, and will, provide for all of our needs.  Further, if we put our trust in God, and walk in the ways to which He guides us, we need fear nothing, no matter how desperate our situation may appear to us, because God will be at our side.

I want to touch on a few other things mentioned in today’s Psalms I want to write about.  While God offers us guidance and teaching, we must humbly accept that teaching without demanding more than what He offers us at this time.  God will test us and try us, examining our hearts, as He shows us what He next desires of us.  If we wish to spend our days in God’s house, we must not allow ourselves to be influenced by the deceitful and hypocrites.  If we assemble with evildoers and socialize with the wicked, we will drift, or perhaps move even more rapidly, away from God.  Let us seek the Lord by joining with those who also seek His face.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 20, 2022 Bible Study — The Psalmist Could Have Written Special Effects Directions For Hollywood

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 18-22.

I love both the message of Psalm 18 and the imagery which the psalmist uses.  First, the imagery (I am just going to pull a few phrases out and paraphrase them together):

The chords of death entangled me, so I called to the Lord in my distress.  He heard my voice, the earth trembled and quaked because He was angry.  Smoke rose from His nostrils, fire came from His mouth. He parted the heavens and came down. Out of His presence clouds advanced with hailstones and lightning.  He reached down from on high, took hold of me and pulled me out of deep waters.

There is much more to this, and the psalmist says it so much better, but that imagery relates the power God will use to deliver those who put their trust in Him.  The psalmist goes on to point out that putting our faith in God is more than just calling on Him when things go bad.  God is faithful to those who faithfully follow Him, He is blameless to those who strive to be blameless, He is pure to those who seek to be pure, but to those who think they are clever enough to find loopholes in His Law, He will demonstrate that He is no less clever.

When I started writing the above I intended to write about how the psalmist tells us in Psalm 19 about how the Universe testifies to God’s greatness, and a bit about Psalm 22, which Jesus cited while He hung on the cross, but the above seems so complete I will stop here and leave those for you to read and meditate on your own.

 

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[h] goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.

Keep your servant also from willful sins;
    may they not rule over me.

 

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

 

 

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

Daily Bible Study

June 19, 2022 Bible Study — Let Us Call On God, He Will Hear Our Prayer

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 10-17.

Today we have once more several different Psalms which are not really thematically connected, and yet there is a thread running through them.  In them all the psalmist writes of a time when wickedness abounds, when no one seems to be seeking the Lord.  The wicked do not believe that they will ever be called to account.  Everyone looks around and sees evil around them, but none (or, at least, very few) examine themselves to see if they act in a manner pleasing to God.  Everyone, it seems, lies to their neighbors, flattering others so as to deceive them.  But God sees the trouble of the afflicted and oppressed and will act.  Let us take refuge in God, then we will not need to flee to the mountains, or to the wilderness, to escape the evil in this world.  Yes, the attempt is being made to destroy the foundations of righteousness, but despite their best efforts God still sits on His throne.  So, let us call on God in prayer that He might call people back to Him.  The answer to the problems we face today is not changing the government, is not changing the institutions around us.  We will not solve the problems we see by getting new laws passed, or even by changing Church leadership.  The answer lies in turning our hearts to God and seeking to do His will, on calling those around us to seek Him.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

June 18, 2022 Bible Study — Like A Tree Planted By Streams Of Water

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 1-9.

Most days I try to find a single theme to focus on, but in the Psalms and the other Wisdom books (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, etc.) there is often so much worth commenting on that I have a hard time choosing what to write.  So, for today, I have chosen to pull a few things out to write about.  We will see if I make a connection between them as I write.

In Psalm 1 the psalmist tells us that those who delight in God’s Law and meditate upon it will be blessed.  They will be firmly planted and able to weather the storms, and droughts, of life.  If you seek to understand and obey God’s Law you must not allow yourself to be influenced by those who reject His Law.   In Psalm 2, the psalmist speaks of the futility of those who seek to throw off the limitations which God has placed upon us.  Further on, the psalmist writes that the trouble they cause rebounds upon them, that they will fall into the pit which they have dug.  As I read this I am reminded of those who attempt to use their control over information to mold people into beliefs which are contrary to God’s plan.  For a time, such molding seems to work, then the very systems they have put into place begin to rebound against them.  They use their tools to bring the weight of social stigma against those who seek to remain faithful to God, but God will deliver those who remain faithful, and be a shield around them against unjust attacks.

So, that did all kind of fit together, but the final bit I want to write about does not quite fit into that.  The psalmist writes about how God is majestic in all the earth.  In fact, he tells us that God has used the praise of children and infants to establish a stronghold.  God’s strength comes from the powerless.  This really strikes me as important to Christians, because we know that God’s greatest victory came through Christ’s death on the cross.  God’s greatest victory over evil did not come through killing evil-doers.  It came from dying.  Consider, the One who made the heavens, the sun, the moon, and the stars in all of their glory, defeated death by dying.  And that great God cares for all of mankind.  That great God cares for you.

 

Lord, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?[s]

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;
    I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you;
    I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;
    their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2022 Bible Study — Our Finite Minds Cannot Truly Comprehend The Infinite God

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 38-42.

When God first speaks to Job in this passage, He points out how limited human knowledge of the world and the universe is.  The first monologue attributed to God asks the question, “How can we judge God’s actions when there is so much that we know nothing about?”  Then in His second monologue, God points out, that on the scale of the universe, humans lack the power to truly change things.  Together, these two things demonstrate that our finite existence leaves us unable to understand how or why God acts as He does.  Job had sought God, now when he had found Him, or, perhaps I should say, when he was found by Him, Job recognized that his claim that God had been unjust was sinful and repented before the awesomeness of God.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 16, 2022 Bible Study — Did Elihu Get It Right?

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 34-37.

I have written that we should take note that, unlike Job’s other three friends, Elihu is not reprimanded by God at the end of this book.  But in today’s passage Elihu says some things which seem to be more or less the arguments the other three made for which God reprimanded them.  On the one hand, Elihu calls out Job for saying that God denies him justice, but on the other hand, he also seems to follow the others in assuming that Job’s suffering is evidence of Job’s wrongdoing.  Elihu also tells us that it is unthinkable that God would pervert justice because it is God who defines justice.  He tells us that God has no need to run inquiries where He investigates what people have done because He already knows all of their actions and motives.  We cannot hide anything from God, who shows no partiality.  He does not favor the rich, or the politically connected.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 15, 2022 Bible Study — God Is Not Silent, He Sends Us Messages To Turn Us From Our Sins

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 29-33.

I have said this in previous years when I read this passage, but it bears repeating: at the end of the book when God speaks, He does not call out Elihu as he does the other three of Job’s friends.  This suggests to me that, unlike the other three, Elihu speaks a message to which we should listen.  First, Elihu makes the point that we should not dismiss what someone has to say just because of their youth.  He even concedes that the young should stay silent and listen to what their elders have to say before they speak up.  Actually, that is the first point which Elihu makes and precedes the first one of which I made note.  We can learn a lot from what Elihu says, but the most important point he makes is that God is not silent.  We may fail to perceive what God has to say to us, but that merely indicates our lack of perceptivity, not God’s silence.  God may speak to us in dreams, or in the words of those around us, or by sending suffering our way.  All of these are ways in which God may send us a message designed to turn us from our sins.  It is important that we listen when God speaks to us.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 14, 2022 Bible Study — While Sin Often Leads Someone To Suffer, Suffering Is Not Evidence That Someone Sinned

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 22-28.

I am always horrified by the accusations Eliphaz makes against Job at the beginning of this passage.  He specifically accuses Job of horrible sins.  Up until this point Job’s friends have merely said that Job’s suffering must be the result of some horrible sin which Job has committed, but have refrained from speculating as to what that sin was.  Here, Eliphaz says that Job must be guilty of these specific sins since he was suffering as he was.  What horrifies me is that Eliphaz is spelling out what the other two were thinking all along even though they had not witnessed Job committing these sins. Nevertheless, they were convinced that he was guilty of them.  Making this assumption is every bit as great of a sin as the sins they accused Job of committing.  It is one thing to look at the sins we have seen someone commit and draw a connection between those sins and the suffering which they experience (and even that has problems in that it might lead us to not have compassion for their suffering) and quite another to project back from their suffering to sins which we believe them to have committed because they are suffering.  The first might be acceptable under some circumstances, but the latter is always putting ourselves in the place of God.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 13, 2022 Bible Study — In My Flesh, I Will See God, And So Will The Wicked

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 16-21.

As I have read the Book of Job time and again in order to write this blog each year I have become convinced that it is only toward the end of this passage that Job begins to say things for which God rebukes him at the end of the book.  In his first two monologues in today’s passage, Job acknowledges that he has an intercessor/advocate who stands before God pleading his case.  The following statement from the first of Job’s three monologues in this passage expresses the great hope which all Christians have in Christ:

Even now my witness is in heaven;

  my advocate is on high.

My intercessor is my friend
    as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
    as one pleads for a friend.

Yet even after hearing Job’s plea that their arguments offer him no comfort, nor provide him with a path to reduce his suffering, Bildad continues to argue that the righteous will prosper and that those who suffer are wicked.  To which, Job replies that such an argument offers him no comfort because God denies him justice, which is the point where Job begins to say things which lead God to rebuke him at the end (although not as great of a rebuke as that which God gives to his friends).  But even here Job expresses a thought which every Christian I know holds dear.

I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
    with my own eyes—I, and not another.

It is only after Zophar once more makes the claim that the wicked always suffer upon this earth that Job points out that this is not the case.  Sometimes, often times, it seems as if the wicked do not suffer in this life at all.  Perhaps the thing we can most do to comfort ourselves about the wicked who seem to live a life of ease with no concerns is remember, that for them the promise that they will see God with their own eyes is not something which gives joy.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 12, 2022 Bible Study — We Cannot Tell From Surface Appearances Whether Someone Is Righteous Or Wicked

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 11-15.

I struggle with what to write about today’s passage.  Sometimes it feels like the Book of Job uses more words to make its point than necessary.  However, in part that is because we oversimplify the point this book is making.  The writer actually makes a very nuanced and complex point.  In today’s passage, Job’s friends essentially say that those who devote their hearts and lives to God, and only those who do so, will be wealthy and happy.  They say that the wicked are constantly tormented, and subject to sudden disasters, while the righteous never suffer such things.  Therefore, they say, we can conclude that anyone who is tormented, or subject to sudden disasters, is wicked., and those who are financially secure with stable lives must be righteous.  Job, on the other hand, expresses his desire to stand before God to be judged.  It is important to remember that at the end of the book when God speaks, while He admonishes Job for challenging His justice,  He calls upon Job’s friends to ask Job to pray for them.

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