Psalm 40:9-17 Today’s reading has a mix of themes – praise and thanksgiving in verses 9-11 and a lament in verses 12-17. It’s interesting that David speaks to the larger assembly of his own proclamation of God’s love and mercy to him. In so doing he mentions a number of the Lord’s attributes in those …
Monthly Archives: April 2022
April 11 / Psalm 40:1-8
Psalm 40:1-8 In contrast to the many laments we have read this past month, in today’s reading we see David thanking and praising the Lord for deliverance from past difficulties, although we have no idea of the nature of those difficulties. The first three verses are direct, more personal thanksgivings. Then David goes on to …
April 10 / Psalm 39
Psalm 39 I’m not sure what to make of this Psalm. It has all the elements of a lament, but in describing his situation it almost seems like David’s “enemy” is God Himself (see verses 9b-11), not unlike Job’s friends seeing Job’s illness as God’s punishment for Job’s sin. Most prominent in this Psalm is …
April 9 / Psalm 38:13-22
Psalm 38:13-22 Psalm 38 is a full-bodied lament, with all of the necessary elements: David’s situation, his plea for help, his claim of his innocence or his cry for vindication, and his thankfulness for deliverance (past or confident future). Yesterday’s reading was full of David’s situation – his pain, physical or emotional. Today we see …
April 8 / Psalm 38:1-12
Psalm 38:1-12 Almost all of today’s reading is David’s lamenting of his situation (vv. 1-8, 10). What’s left is his reaching out to the Lord (v. 9), his friends distancing him (v. 11), and his enemies taking advantage of his condition (v. 12). I don’t recall any of our earlier laments where David is so …
April 7 / Psalm 37:35-40
Psalm 37:35-40 Tom said it all for Psalm 37 yesterday. Putin and the Ukrainians are a nice fit for the wicked and the righteous! But will Putin disappear, as David suggests in verse 36: Then he passed away, and behold, he was no more; I searched for him, but he could not be found? Hitler …
April 6 / Psalm 37:23-34
Psalm 37:23-34 Just a day or two ago I commented that almost every verse in that day’s reading had to do with the wicked. Today is just the opposite – it’s all about the righteous. The word “wicked” only appears three times, in Psalm 37:28,32,34, and even there two of those occasions are half-verses. But …
April 5 / Psalm 37:12-22
Psalm 37:12-22 We’ve been through a lot of “the ways of the wicked” already in Job. This “wisdom” Psalm continues that theme, reflecting over and over that the wicked are doomed. Although they enjoy their riches for a time, in the end they will fall on their own sword (v. 15). John did a great …
April 4 / Psalm 37:1-11
Psalm 37:1-11 Three Study Bibles tell me that Psalm 37 is neither a praise Psalm nor a lament, but rather falls under the category of wisdom literature, like we will see later in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In addition one of these Study Bibles noted that the heart of the Psalm is the first 11 verses …
April 3 / Psalm 36
Psalm 36 I often get distracted in my prayer time and in my Bible reading. It happened today with verse 7b: The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. I “woke up” a few verses later with the reality that I had been daydreaming. But my daydream topic was our Avanza …