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.

    I was initially going to title today’s blog “God’s Faithful Love Endures Forever.” That would have fit today’s passage, but as I was reading today’s psalms for the third time* the words I actually chose for the title felt like the true summation of this passage. No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, we should praise the Lord. His love is faithful and will endure forever. Today is the day that God has made. No matter how bad it may seem to us, everything about it will serve to bring glory to God, and good to those who love Him. In this psalm the psalmist talks about the stone which the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone. This is a reference to Jesus, but it is also a reference to how human leaders reject a key element of God’s will as they make their plans. Time and again those who wish to create Utopia on this earth start their plan by rejecting one or more of God’s laws. As a result their plans fail and God is shown once more to be victorious. I want to touch on one thing the psalmist says that we must never forget:

The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me?

Let us never forget that if we serve God, nothing can happen to us that is not His will. And we know that it is His will that all things work together for good for those who love Him.

    I wanted to point out how many parts of Psalm 118 are either the inspiration of songs or are re-statements of thoughts which are inspirations for songs. Obviously, there is my title, “This Is the Day the Lord Has Made”. There is, also, “The Lord Is My Strength and Song” (I believe there are a couple of other songs using this). Then there is “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His faithful love endures forever.” I am not going to link to these because there are so many and the examples I most readily find are still copyrighted.

*How many times I re-read the passage each day depends on how long it takes to get my thoughts together. Some days, I can read the passage once and start writing, only going back to read again to get the sentences (or paragraphs) to come out right. Other days, I have to read the passage again and again to find something to write (my failing, not the passage’s). Today was in between. I knew the basic thought I wanted to write about from the very first read through (God’s faithful love endures forever), but it took me several readings to get the words to start.

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.

    Once again I struggled with finding a theme or thread which tied these psalms together. They do all have as a theme that we should praise God for all that He has done, but many of the psalms speak of praising God. What makes these come together with a message for us, for me, today? Then I came to Psalm 115:

Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name goes all the glory

Let us live our lives so that we bring glory not to ourselves, but to God. Then when our enemies slander and libel us we need not let it concern us. If their slander and libel extends from us to God, then we need not fear because God will once more show the world His righteousness and justice. Everything God does reveals His glory and majesty, the slander of sinners will whither in the face of God’s actions. If their slander and libel is only of us and leaves God out of it, we need not be concerned because God will use their lies to bring even more glory to Himself. And even if all the world believes the lies about us, God knows the truth and will reward us for our faithfulness. The key in all of this is to have confidence in God and His laws. With that confidence we can continue to do what is righteous in the face of the lies of those who hate 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 105-107.

    I love the way these three psalms fit together. Psalm 105 shows us how God plans for the long term. Bad things happened to the people of Israel (famine in the land of Canaan, Joseph sold into slavery, etc). God did these things in order to show His great power, shape the descendants of Abraham into a people, and bring them out of Egypt wealthier than they would otherwise have been. Psalm 106 reminds us about how quickly we forget the good things God has done for us and fall back into sin. Despite our many sins, God will gather us back to Himself when we repent and call on His name. Finally, Psalm 107 calls on us to tell others how God has redeemed us. There the psalmist describes a few of the many ways in which people have been redeemed. I am always inspired by reading the accounts of how God has rescued those who call on Him.

1. Some were lost and homeless.
2. Some were imprisoned.
3. Some were fools and rebelled
4. Some faced devastating natural disasters.

But they all had one thing in common; in the depths of their troubles they cried, “Lord, help.” God heard their cry and saved them from their distress. Whatever your story of redemption, speak out, tell others about how God has redeemed you from your troubles.

    I am going to take the psalmist’s advice and tell how God redeemed me. I was raised in a Christian home and I had experiences of faith throughout my teen and young adult years. However, I was also raised to seek proof of what I believed (this is not a bad thing). I sought solid incontrovertible evidence that God existed, evidence I could present to someone else as proof. After examining the logic of the universe I came to the conclusion that either the God of the Bible had created the universe, or everything had happened by chance. I desperately wanted evidence of that God, but had not found any which truly satisfied. I was going through a period where life was hard and the idea that there was nothing more than the material world made me feel somewhat depressed. One day I was driving along and considered running my car into an obstacle at speed to just end it. However, I realized how much grief doing so would bring to my mother and I could not do that to her. I cried out to God, “What am I going to do? I cannot go on living like this. My life must have meaning.”
To which He replied, “Your life does have meaning. It’s meaning is to serve Me.”
“Yes, but how do I know You even exist? What if I am just making you up to soothe myself?”
“well,” God replied once more, “is that so bad? Here are your choices. You can choose to believe that the world happened by chance and nothing means anything. Or you can choose to believe that I AM and that I created you for a purpose.”
My response was, “I cannot live with the former. So I will act as if I believe the latter.” It was amazing, up until then, despite my many professions of faith, I had struggled repeatedly with doubt. Since that time, every time doubt starts to rise in my mind something happens to once more prove to me that God is real and created me for a purpose. Perhaps another time I will write about some of those occasions. But for now I will leave you with Psalm 34:8, which sums up my point:

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.

    These psalms fill me with joy as they call on us to sing God’s praises and exalt His name. God has revealed His righteousness to everyone. There are no excuses for not knowing that God is righteous and that He acts with justice. He made us and all that is. We did not make ourselves, nor did this Universe come into existence on its own. I will joyfully thank God as I enter into His presence. I am going to break my thread for a moment. When I first read this it inspired joy throughout my whole being. In order to find something to write, I returned to the beginning and began to write my thoughts as I read through it a second time (actually a third time). When I came to Psalm 101, I realized that it was a primer on how we can truly praise God. I think I may have done this before, but it is worth doing again.

• Lead a life of integrity, even when no one is watching.

The psalmist actually says lead a life of integrity in your own home. That means don’t present one front to the outside world and a different one to your family.

• Refuse to look at ANYTHING vile or vulgar

I think this one may be especially hard for us today in our society, considering what our society puts out for general consumption in movies and on TV.

• Have nothing to do with those who deal crookedly

It is all too easy to look the other way when your business partner, or co-worker, does something dishonest that brings you (or me) benefit.

• Reject perverse ideas and stay away from evil

This one goes with refusing to look at anything vile or vulgar.

• Do not tolerate those who slander others

The key thing about slander is that it is untrue, but we should be careful to confront those who say things they do not KNOW are true (unless, of course, we KNOW they are true)

• Seek out those who are faithful as our companions.

This last is probably the most important element for truly praising God. It is by associating with those who also seek to praise and serve God that we will avoid doing wrong and, more importantly, know and do what is right.

    It is by following the above instructions that we can truly praise God with all that we are, with our whole hearts. It is by seeking out godly associates and allowing them to influence our thoughts and behaviors that we can ensure that we will never forget the good things God does for 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 90-97.

    Our lives are short, let us not waste time that we can spend serving and praising God. This is the first of the three themes in today’s psalms. Those themes are: praise the Lord when you have the chance, God will protect those who trust and serve Him, God will extract vengeance against the wicked, against those who mistreat others. There are some wonderful nuggets throughout these psalms. There is wisdom to be gained by acknowledging how short our lives are. If we place our trust in God we do not need to be afraid of nightmares, armies, disease, or disaster. If we take shelter in doing God’s will, no evil will be able to conquer us. Let us praise God for all that He has already done for us. When I look back over my life so far I see the many times I cried out to God in desperation and how He brought great glory into my life in answer to my plea: when I thought that life was not worth living, I cast myself on God and He gave me joy, when I thought that I could not overcome a sin in my life, I cast myself on God’s mercy and when I next looked up that sin had no power over me, when I desperately wanted a wife, I cast myself on God and He revealed the wonderful woman who is my wife, when I desperately needed a job, I cast myself on God and He gave me a wonderful job, the list goes on.

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.

    God will ultimately sit in judgment of those who govern on this earth. He will call them to account for their unjust decisions, He will hold them accountable for their failure to give justice to the poor and the powerless. We are all children of God, those who govern unjustly will die, just like everyone else. Every nation on this earth belongs to God, those who govern them are just His caretakers and He will judge them for how they do so. There are always those who think that they can use the power which God has loaned them to strike down God’s people and take their property. In the fullness of time (I really like that expression), God will show them the error of their ways (I like that expression as well) and they will be destroyed.

    I am going to do a bit of an aside, because I think that both Psalm 82 and 83 have great relevance to what is going on in the world today. Psalm 82 speaks of those who hand down unjust rulings which favor the wicked. Psalm 82 is a warning to them and a beacon of hope for the rest of us. When I read the news I see so many occurrences of where the government (not just of the U.S.) hands down rulings which do not grant justice to the poor and powerless; where rather than deliver the poor and helpless from the hands of the wicked the government turns them over to them. God will not long stand idly by and watch as this goes on. Psalm 83 speaks of those who have allied and plotted to attack and destroy God’s people. It speaks of how God will scatter them and destroy them. Once more, when I read the news I see that many nations have plotted against the nation of Israel. I have seen this in the news for years, but now recently I have begun to see news of how those nations are beginning to see their destructive ways come home to roost. I will point out that this psalm can also be applied to those who attack the Church.

    I don’t want to end this without spending some time on the rest of the psalms in today’s reading because they are so inspiring. Psalm 84 reminds us that it is better to work and have little in the House of the Lord than have plenty and lounge around in the house of the wicked. Psalm 85 is a prayer asking God to restore and revive us. Even beyond being a prayer it reminds us that listening to what God has to say and following His instructions is the path to that revival. Then Psalm 86 tells us to seek God’s teaching so that we can live according to His truth. We should ask God to give us a pure heart so that we can bring honor to His name. Psalm 87 promises us that no matter where you were born, or who your parents are, you are welcome to become a citizen in God’s Kingdom. And Psalm 89 teaches us that there is no one and nothing as powerful, majestic, and worthy of honor as our God. God’s love will never fail 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 78-81.

    The psalmist recounts the history of Exodus, but not just as a repetition of that tale. He recounted it as a parable. So, what shall we take from this parable? We, also, tend to live our lives as the people of Israel did. We cry out to God for rescue when times become too difficult. When He answers our prayer we are faithful for a short time, but, all too often, after a short time we fall back into our sins and stop listening to God. Then our troubles return and we once more cry out to God. The cycle repeats. The psalmist is calling on us to break free of that cycle, to recognize that we cannot be righteous without God’s help. When we cry out to God for rescue let us also ask Him to make us faithful to Him, not just for a short while, but for all eternity.

Turn us again to yourself, O God.
Only then will we be saved.

We will never remain faithful to God for long on our own strength. It is only when we throw ourselves fully on God’s mercy that we will receive from Him the strength to never abandon Him 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 72-77.

    Psalm 72 gives us an outline of what we should pray for our government and government authorities. We should pray that they have God’s love of justice, that they defend the poor and the powerless. A government which acts according to the outline given will last and will be remembered favorably. When our government is not such a government it is easy to become envious of the proudly wicked, those to whom everything seems to come easily who have no thoughts but for their own desires. However, if we allow ourselves to do so we will become bitter and torn up inside. The wicked may have everything their heart desires on this earth, but when God brings that time to an end they will have nothing. However, those who desire God more than anything on earth will have the eternal joy of being with Him.

    God will bring His judgment against the wicked of this earth at the time He has prepared. In the meantime, when it seems like the good times are in my past and suffering is all I can expect in the future, I will remember the great things God has done and that He has promised to do similar things in the future. I will proclaim God’s glory and praise His name, even when times are hard. The treasures of the wicked will be handed over to those who serve God when the time that God has chosen comes.

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.

    I struggle with the violent imagery of Psalm 68, but a key to understanding it comes in verse 5. There the psalmist tells us that God is father to the fatherless and the defender of widows. Which gives us an idea about what sort of people the psalmist is directing his violent imagery against, it was directed against those who attempted to take advantage of the defenseless. As we read on into the rest of today’s psalms, we see the psalmist admit that he was foolish to sin. As a result of those sins he is suffering and in deep despair. However, because he confessed his sin and begged God for mercy he became an example to many. Let us also live lives which will be an example to many. Not because we live lives that appear to be sinless, but because we are willing to admit that we are not perfect, that we have sinned. Let us set the example of confessing our sins and begging God for forgiveness. Let us fill our lives with a passion for serving God that will bit by bit force the sin out of our lives, not because we are such good and wonderful people, but because God’s Spirit will fill us and leave no room for sinful desires.

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 60-67.

    There is a sort of progression through today’s psalms. It starts with a declaration that God has raised a banner where those who fear Him can rally in the face of attack. The first several psalms today speak of those who love and fear God being in a battle, under attack, under siege. This so reflects the world we live in today. Those who desire to righteously obey God are under attack from all sides. However, these psalms give us direction on how to face these trials. Let us rally to God’s banner and join forces with those others who fear God and are fighting to be faithful. When we are overwhelmed by our troubles, we need to cry out to God in prayer. He will hear us and lead us to safety. He will lead us to His fortress where we can wait quietly before Him. Our victory will come from God, not from our own actions. We need to put our hope and faith in God, not our fellow man.

    Slightly aside from the thread I am following here, but not completely. Psalm 62 verse 9 gives us an insight into the problem facing the world today. There the psalmist warns us that the common people do not have the power, and are not reliable enough, to be counted on to help us. And the powerful pretend to be able and willing to help, but will pursue what they believe are their own interests at our expense. The only aid in time of trouble which we can count on is that which comes from God.

    The thread I was following continues with calling on us to search for God, to desire God, to meditate on God, to cling to God. When we do so, He will hold us closely and safely. In response to the way in which God protects and rescues us, to the mighty deeds He has done, let us praise Him. To summarize the path so far:

• Rally to God’s banner and unite with those who fear Him
• Cry out to God in prayer and follow Him as He leads us to His fortress
• Place our hope and faith in God, not our fellow man.
• Wait for God to act and bring us victory, seeking His will and desiring Him
• Praise God for what He has done and will do.

Then finally, Let us call on the whole world to come and see what God has done. Let us invite those who were attacking us to join us in sereving and worshiping God.