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

Every year when I come to this group of psalms I debate about what to write.  Today’s psalms do such a great job of expressing their thoughts that anything I can write feels like it does not do them justice.  Any way, I decided to capture a few thoughts which struck me as I read through all of them and see if I can make a coherent whole out of them.

First, as I read through Psalm 23 I have two images side by side.  In one image I see a pleasant meadow with a gentle stream running through it.  In the other image I see a shadowy forested valley with a tumultuous flooding stream rising up over the path and wolves (or something worse) howling in the shadows.  In both images I see a vague comforting shape.  In the latter image that shape is facing out into the shadows, challenging anything which might desire to come forth and face Him, while the howls go silent.  I emerge from the shadows back into the pleasant meadow where a table is set up for a picnic in the gentle shade of a tree.  We transition out of these images to realize that there was never any threat because everything and everyone belongs to God, and no one and nothing can overpower Him to take from Him what He desires to hold.  I belong to the Lord, as do those who may wish me harm.  They can only act as He allows.  Which brings us to the psalmist’s prayer that God show him His ways and teach him His paths.  Let us join the psalmist in that prayer so that we do not move off of His path into the dangerous “forest” which surrounds us.  If we allow ourselves to follow the temptation to join with the deceitful and associate with hypocrites, we will find ourselves off of the path to which the Lord is guiding us.  When we leave that path, we move out of His light and into danger.  Yet the psalmist reminds us that if we stay in the light of the Lord, we need fear no one, the wicked are frightened by God’s light and do their best to stay out of it.

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.

As I read through these psalms today I realized that in many ways Psalm 18, our first psalm today, and Psalm 22, the last of today’s psalms, express pretty much the same ideas, but give us a very different emotional sense.  Psalm 18 begins with celebrating the psalmist’s trust in, and dependence on, God before going on to speak of his great distress (which he then follows by expounding on how God saves those who put their faith in Him).  Psalm 22, on the other hand, starts with the psalmist expressing his despondency in great detail before ending by declaring that he will praise God because God will save him.  We can take some lessons from the way the psalmist, in the middle of his distress when he feels like God has abandoned him, declares that God will see him through this distress and the time will come when he will praise God before men for the way in which He saved him, but today I want to focus on the theme which sort of threads its way through all of today’s psalms.  In Psalm 18 the psalmist declares that he has kept himself from sin and God has rewarded him for doing so.  I want to say that there is value in recognizing that we gain from doing as God commands, but we know from elsewhere in Scripture that no one can be blameless on their own merit.  Which is addressed by what the psalmist says in Psalm 19.  There he begs God to forgive his hidden faults and to keep him from willful sin while expounding on how wonderful God’s commands are.  Then in Psalm 20, the psalmist writes:

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

He continues by saying that those who trust in material things (chariots and horses) will fall, but those who trust in God will rise up and stand firm.  By putting our trust in God, and only by putting our trust in God, we can be righteous with the righteousness which God gives to us through Christ Jesus.  Finally, Psalm 22 ends with the psalmist telling us that future generations will be told about the Lord, and they will proclaim his righteousness declaring that He has done wonderful things, that He has provided salvation to the world, He has defeated evil.

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.

Today’s psalms speak about a couple of contrasting ideas.  First the psalmist writes of how the wicked have no fear of God, believing that He will not hold them accountable.  However, the psalmist reminds us that while it may at times seem that the wicked prosper, God will take action to protect the oppressed and punish the wicked.  The psalmist goes on to remind us that while the wicked strike at the foundations of justice and law and order so that it seems like the righteous can do nothing, the Lord will act and the righteous need only put their trust in Him.  I want to stress that when the foundations of law and order and justice are being destroyed the righteous only need to put their trust in God, but they do need to put their trust in God.  The solution in that situation is to turn to God, not to try to turn to some other “fix” for the problem.

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.

I love today’s psalms, even though they do not exactly have a theme (which makes it hard to find something write that covers all of them).  Nevertheless, I have some thoughts about what I want to write.  Our first psalm perfectly starts the entire Book of Psalms when it tells us that blessed is the one who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.  While I believe the psalmist was almost certainly referring to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), and more specifically the laws contained in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, I also believe that we can substitute Scripture for “law of the Lord” in that thought.  So, blessed is the one who delights in Scripture and meditates on it.  Then in the second psalm the psalmist warns rulers to serve God with fear, after stating that most of them revolt against God and pay the price for doing so.  From there he goes on (I am assuming that all of these psalms were written by the same person, although that may not be the case) to tell us that those who seek shelter by God will be blessed.  God will shelter those who turn to Him.  If we call out to God, He will deliver us because His love never fails. Let us give praise to God for His righteousness and thank Him for what He has done, and will do, for 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 143-150.

When we struggle with the difficulties of life, let us remember what God has done for His people in the past.  When our enemies are too strong for us, and we seem doomed to destruction at their hands, let us meditate on God’s works.  In times of trouble cry out to God for direction, and entrust your life to Him.  Follow the guidance which God gives you and remember His love for you.  As insignificant and powerless you consider yourself, and you are not wrong, God cares for you.  God does not love us because we are mighty warriors, or powerful individuals who can accomplish great things on His behalf.  He is the Maker of all that is and does not need our help.  Rather, we need His help and should humbly rely on Him.  God takes delight in those who put their trust in Him, rather than putting their trust in powerful people, wealthy people, or politicians.  Let us fear and trust God, and gain our pleasure in praising Him.  When you meditate on God’s mighty works, you will see that all of Creation brings glory to God’s name.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 136-142.

We should give thanks to God because He is good and His love endures forever.  The psalmist gives us some examples of things which God has done which demonstrate both His goodness and His love, but each of us should think about the good things God has done for us.  If we honestly appraise what God has done for us, we will praise Him before those who seek to take His place in our lives.  But let me get back to God’s enduring love for us.  God loves us deeply and fully.  Everyone I know struggles to one degree or another with thinking that no one will love them if they truly knew who they were.  But this is a false belief, because no one can possibly know our deepest darkest secrets as well and as thoroughly as God does, yet God loves us with a love beyond our ability to fully comprehend.  So, when the psalmist asks God to search him and know his heart, he is not asking God to learn more about him.  Rather, he is asking God to reveal to him things he has hidden from himself.  Let us ask God to reveal to us the things we do, or say, or think, which He finds offensive, and then to transform us so as to remove those things from our lives.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 120-135.

The psalmist has some great points for us in today’s psalms.  When we ask ourselves where our help will come from, let us join the psalmist in saying that our help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth.  If we place our trust in Him, we will have Someone watching over us who never sleeps, not even a short nap.  He will watch over our coming and going forevermore.  Then we can join with those who rejoice at the thought of going to God’s house, and by that I do not mean the building where we gather to worship.  No, when the psalmist talks of going to the house of the Lord, he is speaking of going to the place where God dwells.  And God lives within those who trust in Him.  So, when we go to God’s house, we are going to where God’s people live in unity.  We cannot build that “house” through our own effort, not even working with the most skilled people.  If we strive to build a “house” where God’s people live together in unity without God Himself being the architect and builder, our striving will be in vain.  So, when the psalmist rejoices with those who say, “Let us go to the house of the Lord,” he is rejoicing with those rely on God to build a place of unity for His people to dwell.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 117-118.

One of the recurring themes throughout Psalms is that God’s love endures forever.  The psalmist begins by telling us that God loves us, and that the “us” to which he is referring encompasses all people.  Rather than trust in people, even those with great wealth and power, put your trust in God.  If God is with you, what can any mortal, or group of mortals, do to you?  And if you fear the Lord, He will be with you.  Every time I write about fear of the Lord, I think about what that means.  If we fear the Lord, we will do as He commands because we fear making Him angry, and we fear disappointing Him.  As a child, and even as a young man, I feared disappointing my parents.  That fear kept me from many acts which would have destroyed my life.  In the same way, I fear disappointing God…although I know that I have and do.  Yet, that fear of disappointing God inspires me to strive to change.  More importantly, it inspires me to allow Him to change me.  I fear the Lord, therefore I need fear no one and nothing else.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 105-107.

The psalmist tells us to praise the Lord and proclaim His name.  Let us make known what He has done.  That theme permeates these three psalms.  First the psalmist gives examples of what God has done to redeem His people in the past, and encourages us, no, commands us, to relay these stories to those we meet.  He talks about how those who rebelled against God were punished, although those who repented and cried out to God were delivered.  He reminds us how God’s people forgot Him again and again, only to turn back to Him when troubles arose.  The psalmist speaks of those who stood in the breach before God so that He would not destroy those who had rebelled against Him.  Those individuals both begged God to be merciful and heroically called people to turn to and obey God.  Finally, the psalmist calls on us to tell the stories of how God has redeemed us.  He gives examples of those who  suffered for their sin, then cried out to God and were delivered.  Let  us continue to tell the stories which have been passed down to us from those who served the Lord in the past.   The stories of how God worked through acts of nature and how He worked through those who stood up to others.  Let us tell the stories of how God redeemed us.  And let us be inspired to stand up like the heroes of God from the past.

He sent darkness and made the land dark—
    for had they not rebelled against his words?

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

Blessed are those who act justly,
    who always do what is right.

Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
    to make his mighty power known.

But they soon forgot what he had done
    and did not wait for his plan to unfold.

So he said he would destroy them—
    had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
    to keep his wrath from destroying them.

But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
    and the plague was checked.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
    those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
³ those he gathered from the lands,
    from east and west, from north and south.^[e]

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he delivered them from their distress.

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