Tag: psalms

Psalm 119:97-104

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            We live in a wonderful, complex, beautiful, broken, and upside-down world.  The information we have access to, the choices we make, and the networking we engage in all require a great deal of wisdom.  Throw into the mix the reality that most things rarely go as we plan, and you have a recipe for disappointment and/or frustrating anger.  So, is there a path, a way of approaching this world that can help us navigate all of its twists and trials?  Well, yes, there is a light through it all.  And I will let today’s psalm, from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible, inform us of how to proceed:
 
I deeply love your Law!
I think about it all day.
98 Your laws never leave my mind,
and they make me much wiser
than my enemies.
99 Thinking about your teachings
gives me better understanding
than my teachers,
100 and obeying your laws
makes me wiser
than those
who have lived a long time.
101 I obey your word
instead of following a way
that leads to trouble.
102 You have been my teacher,
and I won’t reject
your instructions.
103 Your teachings are sweeter
than honey.
104     They give me understanding
and make me hate all lies.

 

Amen.

Psalm 137

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            On this side of heaven is a life full of love and heartbreak, celebration and lament, encouragement and insult.  It is a spiritually schizophrenic existence of both a kiss of heaven, and a taste of hell.  We live in a fundamentally broken world that is currently being reclaimed by God’s kingdom.  So, our emotions run the gamut from fun happiness to sheer sorrow.  Either way, especially through the difficult stretches of our lives, Christians are to tether themselves to their true home:  heaven.
 
            “If I forget you, let my right hand go limp.  Let my tongue stick to my mouth, if I don’t think about you above all else.”  The psalmist was speaking of Jerusalem, the city that represented the presence of God.  Being exiled to a foreign land, the Israelites were not to forget their real home.  The reality, for the believer in Jesus, is that heaven is our reality.  This present arrangement is like camping in a tent – it is a temporary home, and not our permanent residence.
 
            It is easy to forget our true home, which is why we need continual reminders of eternity’s scope.  We are not to get too familiar with our current living conditions.  Simple acts like looking up at the stars at night and/or gazing into the vast expanse of the day’s sky while walking the dog can be tangible reminders that we are meant for larger things, for the embrace of heaven.  Put your life in the perspective of your true home, and build your treasure there.
 

 

            Sovereign Lord, may your blessing be with those who embrace heaven as a way to impact the earth and all its inhabitants.  Let me be in awe of your large kingdom work and prepare me for the eternal, through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Psalm 119:49-56

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Insomnia happens to all of us, some more than others.  We all know the experience of not being able to get to sleep at night.  Then, there are those persons who actually choose to arise in the middle of the night just to pray.  Yes, there are monks who do this, but there are common people who do, as well.  I think about such persons when I read a verse like this:  “Even in the night I think about you, LORD, and I obey your Law.”
 
            At various times in my life I have actually chosen to set my alarm for two o’clock in the morning in order to pray.  I know it may sound crazy to some, but this discipline has taught me something very valuable:  God is Lord over all time, and I am his servant.  The exercise of me wrapping my life around set times of prayer has caused me to learn that I have spent far too much of my life making time bend to my wishes.  But it is all really an illusion – that I can somehow control the clock.  Time marches forward, seasons come and go, and we are but a vapor that lasts only a moment.
 
            Whether we find ourselves awake in the night because we cannot sleep, or intentionally choose to use the night for connecting with God, the wee hours of the night afford us a unique opportunity to think about God and his Word.  The next time you find yourself awake at night, don’t just turn on the TV and wait to fall asleep.  Use the night-time for thinking about the Lord in ways you might not have considered during the day.  In doing so, you will find a blessing in the dark.
 

 

            God of all time, no matter where I am, your teachings fill me with songs.  You have given me blessings in the day and in the night because you are the one I choose to obey.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.

Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Reading and praying the psalms over and over again is a major way of fortifying faith for a lifetime of handling adversity.  Psalms are meant to be constantly used, like a wearing a favorite t-shirt whenever possible, or watching a good movie several times.  Lines from the film become etched in our thinking and vocabulary, not because we sought to memorize them but because of the many viewings.  Psalm 91 is a good psalm – one we can read and pray so many times that its theology and message are internalized.  It thus serves as a rock in times of trouble.  Security, safety, and confidence eventually replace fear, worry, and insecurity.  Let these words become part of a routine regimen of facing down the troubles of life:
 
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
 
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.” (ESV)
 

 

Amen and amen.