2021.08.10

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42: 5; 42: 11; 43: 5

Prayer encouragement from two dear friends:

"Questions are not doubts...........Don't be afraid to raise questions, just make sure they are believing questions."                                                                  ---Alec Motyer

"Pray your disappointments but leave them with God. Remember, you just can't see. And when He answers us, it will be far better and more astonishing than anything we could have asked for."
                                                                                  ---Timothy Keller

2021.07.27

 Psalm 84: 1-2, 10a

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

In old studies of the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple--courts--in Jerusalem, my thoughts had centered on "the Lord's dwelling place with His people". But also--with Solomon and Paul--rebelled against that thought:

1 Kings 8: 27

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

Acts 7: 24

The God who made the world and everything in it.....does not live in temples made by man.........

Today (with thanks to RSB note) seeing the Lord's tent/tabernacle/temple/courts as the place--out of His created universe, all that is His because He made it--in which He chose to reveal His presence to the people. 

 

2021.07.19

From Psalm 81, with thanks to Timothy Keller

If we will rejoice in God

Psalm 81: 1 Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

and obey Him--fulfill our designed nature--

Psalm 81: 8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

Psalm 81: 13 Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!

the Lord's rich promises are for us

Psalm 81: 16 (the Lord God) would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Derek Kidner: "He gives the best, and brings sweetness out of what is harsh, forbidding and wholly unpromising."

Judges 14: 14 Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.

2 Corinthians 12: 10 For when I am weak, then I am strong.

How gracious God has been to me--through many years, many situations--to see His care for His weak, frail child, to see His sweetness through hard times.

2021.01.21

Prayer and Life

Thinking about my aim in this new year, in this new political climate:

    To pray for all types of people........

    1 Timothy 2:2 that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

    To live according to......

    --the moral order of the universe
    --the fabric, or grain, of how God made things
    --the design of God's creation

    (inspired by Timothy Keller)

A note in the Reformation Study Bible from today's reading in Genesis 41 is appropriate to include here:

            "Joseph prefigured Moses at the founding of Israel, and Daviel at the end of Israel's monarchy.

             All three were oppressed captives who came to power in a hostile land by pitting God's wisdom

             against the wise of this world, displaying the superiority of God's wisdom and His rule 

             over the nations." 
 

2020.12.31

On the last day of the year 2020, looking toward a new year but ultimately to the coming glorious Zion.

From yesterday's reading:

Isaiah 60: 19-20
The sun shall no longer be your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you;
But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light,
and your God your glory.

Revelation 21: 23-24

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,

for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, 

and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

2020.12.21

Behold the Lord God

One of many glimpses of the truth of 

Hebrews 4: 12
For the word of God is living and active...........

Today's reading included

Job 39:1 - 41:34

and

Isaiah 40:1-31

Job 41: 9

Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him.

Isaiah 40: 13

Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel?

2020.12.18

How rich is God's Word and His promises to His people!

A verse full of confident petition to God for His work in our lives:

Psalm 138: 8 NKJV
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

Psalm 138: 8 ESV

The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me:

your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever,

Do not forsake the work of your hands.

And from Alec Motyer, who with his 'bits and bobs' brings the richness of the original Hebrew to those of us who don't know it:

Psalm 138: 8 Motyer 

Yahweh will Himself act fully on my behalf.

Yahweh, Your committed love is for ever.

Do not let down the works of Your hands!