Through the Bible in one year - Day 28

Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

   whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

   of whom shall I be afraid?

I really like this Psalm. I don’t know if I remembered that before I read it this morning. See how it starts? And then it gets right down to the scary bits; when evil doers assault me...to eat up my flesh yikes. But what about it? The Psalmist says they will be the ones to stumble and fall, ok, so it isn’t that scary after all; in each instance when the scary bits come, the Lord is there to save and harbor us – that is a very good thing to hold on to in our own hearts. And then in verse 4:

One thing have I asked of the Lord,

   that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

   all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

   and to inquire in his temple.

I know a song of this verse, and I can hear it as I read this...and the Psalm continues in this way until we see the Psalmist rescued from danger and dancing for joy in the Lord’s own tent. (Talk about safe harbor!) Verses 13 and 14 say this:

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord

   in the land of the living!

Wait for the Lord;

   be strong, and let your heart take courage;

wait for the Lord!

In the land of the living...we will see God. So David (I’m guessing he is our Psalmist here) has said the same thing that Job says:

I know that my redeemer lives, and in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)

And then the Psalm’s last line says to wait. Wait for the Lord; be strong, take courage and wait for the Lord. Waiting has always been hard. For me and I would bet maybe for you too. Waiting is so indefinite, so...long. Whether waiting for a specified time period or as in this case for the Lord to come. The when we don’t know, but David says let our heart take courage and wait. I will wait, and it may take courage, because I might be distracted or discouraged or even fearful at times (I remember those scary bits) but David, and Job have given us hope.

Now, we read of the birth of Esau and Jacob. Did you notice with me that first Isaac must pray for Rebekah to conceive and then when she does, she too must go to the Lord for assistance, direction and help. I can see echoes of the Psalm here: The lord is my light and salvation (Yeah my wife can conceive), then the children struggle within her womb and the Lord gives comfort and knowledge of what is to come. Oh, boy, now in the middle of reading this I wonder if this were happening today, would Rebekah decide these children were going to be too much trouble? Would she even let them be born? What does the Lord mean when he says two peoples shall be divided and the older will serve the younger? (Genesis 19:23)

I see that it was twenty years that Isaac and Rebekah waited to have children. It seems the first line after telling us that Isaac was 40 when they married, that we read Isaac prayed because Rebekah was barren – but we don’t notice until verse 26 that Isaac was now 60 when the boys were born – that is a long time to wait; no wonder they were praying to God. We have Esau, a real man’s man; out hunting and working in the field and bringing food for his father to eat; and we have Jacob in the tents, presumably where his mother was – and he knew how to cook, since when Esau comes in famished, and ready to die he exchanges his right to all his father’s possessions and lands for a bowl of lentil stew. We can think this is strange – and it certainly is. Tomorrow there is more about this, and I have read it before, but I will wait until we get there and read it together before saying anything more about this.

Wow! Here we are in 2 Chronicles – the time has flown by. In reading it this way, online I didn’t see that 1 Chronicles was ended before opening today’s reading and seeing that here we are in 2 Chronicles. I maybe could have figured it out when the passage ended yesterday saying that all the deeds of David had been written here and there...it does sound a bit like a summation.

Anyway, here we are in 2 Chronicles and the first we read about Solomon is that he worships the Lord; I’d say he’s off to a good start with that attitude. Then we come to the famous question from God:

In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, "Ask what I shall give you." And Solomon said to God, "You have shown great and steadfast love to David my father, and have made me king in his place. O Lord God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?" God answered Solomon, "Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked long life, but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may govern my people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge are granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, such as none of the kings had who were before you, and none after you shall have the like." So Solomon came from the high place at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting, to Jerusalem. And he reigned over Israel. (2Chronicles 7-13)

Yes before I read any more or comment on this passage in general, I will say that this indeed is a great way to begin – anything. We could learn a LOT from this beginning.

Here, I’ve written a fair amount today already and we haven’t even gotten to the passages from Luke. Today the question Jesus puts to the blind man who stops him along the way, is what do you want me to do for you? (Luke 18:41) and the blind man says – I’d like to see, and he does! Notice that he and all the people who saw this happen praised God. This certainly was David’s response all the way back in our Psalm; the Lord saves him and puts him safely out of harm’s way and David praises the Lord.

Then in verses 19:9-10 we read of Zacchaeus: And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." This is in harmony with what we have read so far today in the Psalm – and of course in harmony with what we have read so far in Luke – and elsewhere. The last thing I will note is from the final passage about the men given charge over their master’s funds; one of them who neither likes nor trusts his master does absolutely nothing with the funds and instead says upon his master’s return “I knew you are a severe man...” (Verse 19:21) What I note, is the response of that Master that Jesus gives us: By your own words, I will condemn you. (Verse 19:22) That tells me, that I had better be careful of my own words – and my actions need to follow my faith instead of my fears. This advice from the Psalm comes in handy again: let your heart take courage – and wait. Too bad this poor fearful servant hadn’t paid attention. Best if we do.

Today’s readings: Psalm 27, Genesis 25:19-34, 2 Chronicles 1, Luke 18:31-19:27