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

There is no greater blessing than to have our sins forgiven, however we cannot experience forgiveness until we acknowledge our sins.  We will continue to suffer for our sins until we admit to ourselves and to God that we did wrong, when we confess our sins, when we admit that they were indeed sins, God will forgive us and give us healing.  Then He will instruct us in how we should behave and direct our way to bring glory to Him and thus happiness to ourselves.  As we learn to do His will joy will fall upon us and we will rejoice in Him.  I read these psalms and I try to communicate the message they speak to me, but I find myself falling short of doing so.  Then I come to this phrase in Psalm 34, “Taste and see that the Lord is good:”.  Reading that I realize that no matter how eloquently I speak of Him, you will not understand the message until you experience it for yourself.  So, I strive to convince those I know to take that leap of faith to put their trust in God.  Sometimes I lose hope of those for whom I care deeply ever accepting His love, but this psalm contains a message of hope there as well:

For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.

This reminds me that I came to Him because His Spirit called me, when His Spirit calls them, they will also answer.  I know that I will never bring my friends to the Lord, but perhaps His Spirit will move through me to bring them to Himself.

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

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

These psalms have several related themes which appear in different forms in each of them.  In Psalm 23, the psalmist writes “I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”  Then in Psalm 27, he writes, “whom shall I fear?” and “of whom shall I be afraid?”  He also writes about how we get to that place where we do not fear; we get there by following God’s leading.  In Psalm 23, the psalmist tells us to follow God’s guidance on the path we should follow.  In Psalm, he tells us to allow God to teach us.  Throughout these psalms the psalmist tells us to put our trust in God, to rely on Him, and on nothing else.  He writes that there can be no greater joy than to live in the presence of the Lord.  If we seek the Lord, He will answer when we call and He will protect us.

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

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

I love the imagery the psalmist uses in Psalm 18 to show God’s power and magnificence of His action when He moves to deliver.  However, I want to write about verses 25 and 26:

To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.

Here, the psalmist reminds us that God responds honestly to those with good motives, but will not be tricked by those who think they have found a loophole in His instructions.  From there the psalmist reminds us that our skills, in whatever area they lie, come from God.  Therefore let us use those skills to bring glory to His name.

The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior!

For those who wish to justify their rebellion against God by claiming He does not exist, the psalmist states that the Universe declares that God exists; its splendor reflects God’s glory, and its very existence demonstrates His power and knowledge.  Finally, this collection of psalms reminds me why I wish to read the Bible regularly;

The law of the Lord is perfect,
    refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
    making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
    giving joy to the heart.

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

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

The psalmist who wrote today’s psalms might have been writing about our society now.  The wicked hunt down the weak and devise plans to catch up those who cannot fight back.  They act as if no one will ever hold them to account, and it seems like perhaps they are correct.  Everywhere we look around us we see those who are not faithful or loyal; we see those whose deeds are vile and corrupt.   They declare that there is no God.  This leads some to declare that those who wish to obey the Lord need to flee to remote places in order to live because the wicked are destroying the foundations of law.  But the psalmist tells us that we should take refuge in the Lord, those who believe that there is no God are fools.  God will rise up and put the wicked to flight, then those who put their trust in Him will be able to march forth with Him.  God loves righteousness and justice, those who put their trust in Him do not need to flee from the assaults of the wicked.

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

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

When I read the Book of Job, I struggle because it makes many of the same points over and over again.  That is not a bad thing, sometimes we need the same point made over and over again(and the main point of the Book of Job is definitely one of those points which need to be made over and over again).  In the Psalms I run into the opposite problem: often the passage contains so many things that I don’t know what to leave out.

So, I love the way in which the Psalms begin.  If we desire God’s blessing we must not allow the wicked to shape our thoughts and actions.  Instead, we must delight in God’s commands and spend our time thinking about how we can follow them in our everyday lives.  This stands in contrast to those who band together thinking that the path to their best life is to cast off the constraints of God’s laws.  They regard our faith as a weakness which provides no benefit, and are convinced that God will not deliver us from the troubles which come upon us.  However, let us follow the psalmist’s example by beginning our day communing with God, laying before Him that which troubles us.  Strive to do that while both requesting that He deal with those issues and show us what we should do in order to serve Him.  Take time each day to consider the marvelous things which God has made, whether it be your cat, the plants growing around you, or the stars in the sky, and realize that the God who created all of these things has time to listen to you and to address your problems.  That should make you humble, cause you to thank Him for all that He has done for you, and inspire you to tell others about how wonderful He is.

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