Through the Bible in one year - Day 61

Hear my cry, O God,

listen to my prayer;

from the end of the earth I call to you

when my heart is faint.

Lead me to the rock

that is higher than I,

for you have been my refuge,

a strong tower against the enemy.

Let me dwell in your tent forever! (Psalm 61:1-4)

OK, I don’t know about you but I could stay in this Psalm for a while. Just sit here and BE. Too often we are action beings or thinking beings instead of sitting still and being beings. Maybe that doesn’t make sense to you, or maybe you can relate to this always being in motion either physically or mentally, I have been talking to a young women who is having trouble keeping her mind at peace, and for her she finds that she needs to focus on what she should be doing at any moment rather than getting stuck in the thinking of scenarios or worrying about things to come or...just being all riled up mentally and emotionally, and yet this Psalm talks about something other than the first two alternatives – thinking and worrying or doing something; this Psalm seems to offer a different peace, one in which we are able to rest in safety and just breathe. This seems indeed to be a good place to begin and end the day. Yes, Lord hear my cry, and be my refuge.

Boy, talk about reasons to be worried this oppression the Israelites are suffering under Pharaoh is awful. This is what God says in this circumstance:

Say therefore to the people of Israel, "I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. (Exodus 6:6)

I will take that as a comfort for my own struggles – the Lord hears and will redeem me.

Here in the reading of 2 Chronicles we read of Josiah who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and in his time the book of the Law was found. Imagine, it had been lost. How little care these men had given this gift from God that in some time when they were busy with their own worries or their own plans they mislaid the book of the Law. Without knowing what was inbounds or what was out of bounds it would be hard for a tennis match to be completed, think how difficult it would be to live a life in line with the Lord’s precepts without it. No wonder we kept having these kings do what was evil in the sight of the Lord! Thankfully Josiah got everyone back on track.

This reading from Romans then is the evidence of what we do when we don’t know or care what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

This is what it says in verses 21-23:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

I think I’ll stick with Josiah.

Today’s readings: Psalm 61, Exodus 5-6:9, 2 Chronicles 34, Romans 1:18-32