Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 108-116.

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The first psalm today begins with the psalmist saying he will praise the Lord.  He goes on to talk of God’s promises to Israel.  Then he speaks of how Israel has been struggling in battle.  He pleads for God’s help, acknowledging that without God they cannot succeed. He concludes his plea by admitting that the apparent success of Israel’s armies are because God has already overcome Israel’s enemies.  All of that is directed towards Israel in the psalm, but I think we can see it as directed to us.  In Christ, God made promises to us.  If we attempt to live our lives under our own power we will struggle just as the psalmist says that the Israelites were here.  Let us strive to know, and live accordingly, that only with God will we overcome our struggles.  And, then, only because God has gone before us and smoothed the path for us.

Psalm 109 really struck me today.  Usually, and even when I started reading it today, it makes me uncomfortable.  It makes me uncomfortable because the psalmist calls for terrible things to come upon his enemy, while I believe that we should love our enemies and seek good things for them.  However, as I read it today it started to feel like a warning to us.  When I came to verse 8, “May his days be few; may another take his office,” I remembered that in Acts Peter used this very verse to call on appointing someone as an Apostle in place of Judas.  Then when I came to verse 16, I realized that the terrible things which the psalmist had proposed we did not need to take as the psalmist wishing upon the man, but rather the psalmist saying that if we fail to show kindness and treat others poorly we will suffer those things.  If we curse others, cursing will come upon us.  If we wish blessings we need to bless others.  If we speak evil of others without cause, we will suffer.  If we accuse the innocent of crimes, we will be dishonored and shamed.

I want to talk about the way in which Psalms 114 and 115 combined as I read them.  Psalms 114 talked about how the sea fled before God, the Jordan River turned aside when God approached, and the mountains and hills trembled before Him.  All of this to say that the entire earth, both its geographical features and its inhabitants fear in God’s presence.  Then in Psalm 115 the psalmist seeks to deflect glory from himself to God.  He makes fun of those who refuse to worship God while worshiping that which has been made by humans.  I will be perfectly honest when I read verses 4 through 8 I thought of the way many people view AI (Artificial Intelligence).  AI produces audio, but it does not really say anything.  It can capture video, but it does not really see what is in that video.  AI captures sound, but does not truly understand what that sound means.  AI has the means to interact with the world, but it does not truly feel.  And those who put their trust in AI will become like it.  They will stop truly understand the world around them.  Instead of putting your trust in things made by man, fear the Lord and trust Him.  Then He will be your help and will shield you from the dangers of this world.

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