September 17 / Psalm 132

Psalm 132

Dear RTB’ers,

Hello from Nitra, SK! Carol and I are at our new home in Slovakia for the next three months. I have long tried to get my comments posted before 9:00 am each day. I should have little trouble doing that for the rest of this year, since we are six hours ahead of you!

So, for today: For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: “This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell…” (vv. 13-14) So, Zion. Is that just Jerusalem or is it all of Israel? For example, going back to King David, And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land… [and] David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. (II Samuel 5:7) So, Zion is the “city of David” (Jerusalem)? On the other hand, there are people who are known as “Zionists”, supporters of the nation of Israel. So, Zion is all of Israel? Your choice. I’ll go with Zion as Mt. Zion, the city of David. It’s the place that the Lord has chosen for His dwelling.

But even if we pick one or the other, the city or the nation, in the end it hardly matters. Stephen (one of the first deacons) was quoted by Luke in his speech before he was martyred: Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, ‘Heaven is My throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?’ (Acts 7:48-50a) The Lord dwells wherever He chooses to dwell. And because He is omnipresent, He can dwell in multiple locations at multiple times and at an infinite level that we cannot comprehend. Our simplest bottom line is that He dwells in each and every one of us: Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (I Corinthians 3:16) We are His dwelling place. Believe that and live it!

Blessings.

See also:

September 16 / Psalms 130-131

Psalms 130-131

Dear RTB’ers,

I am sitting in an airport in Brussels, Belgium, waiting for a connecting flight to Vienna, then on to Nitra, Slovakia where Carol and I will spend the next three months. I have left behind my Study Bible and our Search the Scriptures companion book, so I will be a bit hampered the next three months. However, I will continue to post, making use of Holy Spirit inspiration and Internet sources.

Today’s verses, If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. (vv. 130:3-4, NASB) Our psalmist knew of his iniquities, but he also knew of God’s forgiveness. That forgiveness (to him) may have come in the form of animal sacrifices. He could not have known of the forgiveness that Jesus gives, that He offers to us through His substitutionary death on the Cross. Thankfully, we don’t do animal sacrifices anymore. But sadly, however, we do have our iniquities to deal with. Let’s not take Jesus’s forgiveness for granted!

Blessings.

See also:

September 15 / Psalms 127-129

Psalms 127-129

Dear RTB’ers,

Since we began with Psalm 120 a few days ago we have been reading psalms with an introductory title, “A Song of Ascents”. That will continue for another five psalms. Scholars agree that these songs of ascents were likely sung by pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for one of the three annual feasts or by residents of Jerusalem as they walked to the temple. Accordingly, most of these psalms are happy, joyful, full of praise for God’s glory.

Today’s third psalm does not follow that pattern. Instead, the psalmist’s attention is toward his enemies: May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward; may they be like grass upon the housetops which withers before it grows up… (vv. 129:5-6) The psalmist speaks of his attackers, of the wicked. It seems like a strange psalm for us to be singing on our way to church!

Jesus taught us differently, to pray for our enemies. He might have even been thinking of this psalm as He delivered His sermon on the mount: You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…’ (Matthew 5:43-44). The second half of today’s final verse (although introduced in the negative) is the song that we should be singing: The blessing of the LORD be upon you! We bless you in the name of the LORD! (v. 129:8b) Yes, blessing, not cursing!

Blessings.

See also:

September 14 / Psalms 124-126

Psalms 124-126

Dear RTB’ers,

Yesterday’s word was “protection”. That same word jumped out at me today: If it had not been the LORD who was on our side… when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive… Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. (vv. 124:1-3; 125:1) The lead verses in both of today’s first two psalms speak of protection and our trust in our great Protector. It may not be physical armies that are battling against us, but there are still issues troubling us, fears haunting us, unknown thousands of difficulties that we could be facing. The Lord knows all of them and watches over us to protect us.

Those verses and their application are super important for Carol and me as we head off tomorrow, flying some 5,000 miles from home and then additional untold distances overseas for the next three months. It would be an impossible journey for us if we did not have our trust in the Lord to watch over us. Thankfully we already have a church and a homegroup and dozens of friends when we arrive, all of whom make our journey less difficult. Still, our trust is in the Lord to protect and watch over us.

And the rest of you…? Where are you headed today? …tomorrow? …whenever? Who is watching over you? Spend some time today chatting with Him about your day, your week, your life…!

Blessings.

See also:

September 13 / Psalms 122-123

Psalms 122-123

Dear RTB’ers,

Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces.” (vv. 122:6-7) Our world leaders have somehow managed peace in Jerusalem these days, although there is probably tension among the residents that we don’t see. We can’t say as much for the rest of the country. Israel is certainly not “at peace”, not within its own borders or with neighboring countries.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel!

Blessings.

See also:

September 12 / Psalms 120-121

Psalms 120-121

Dear RTB’ers,

Yesterday’s word was deliverance; today it’s protection, almost every verse in Psalm 121. Two halves of the same coin…? In a sense, if we are not protected, we may need deliverance. So with both words we are appealing to God for His assistance.

Carol and I tend to travel a lot – we’ve got children and siblings who live hundreds of miles away. As we leave the house or prepare to return we typically ask the Lord for His protection on our journey – for our vehicle, our driving, other drivers, our time together, whatever! We know that there are thousands of things that could happen on the road. So we pray for protection.

But also, in our daily lives, just around town or even around the house, we need His protection. Again, things happen, hundreds of little things that we never even notice, what could have happened, but didn’t. From my childhood I have believed in guardian angels. If pressed, I would probably say that I still do. I don’t think about them a lot, but I tend to believe that they are there. I see it all as part of God’s protection plan for us.

Protection. His protection. Yes. It’s there. And we need it!

Blessings.

See also:

September 11 / Psalm 119:153-176

Psalm 119:153-176

Dear RTB’ers,

9/11. Twenty-five years. So long ago, and yet, not so long… A day for us to remember and pray.

Today we finish Psalm 119. A very different Psalm than any of the others. Twenty-two stanzas, eight verses each, with at least six of those eight synonyms (precepts, decrees, etc.) in each stanza. Very different, indeed!

The one constant that I have seen in this Psalm is deliverance (naturally, in addition to the author’s main focus on those eight synonyms). We see deliverance again today, in Ps. 119:153, 154, 157, 161, 169, 170. It makes me think again that David must have been the author, but now I’m wondering if it might have been when he was older and wiser, during his time when he was fleeing from Absalom, not during the time that he was fleeing from Saul.

But the other constant for this author is praise – his confidence in who God is and what He has done. The author has praise as a near-closing verse: Let my soul live and praise You, and let Your rules help me. (v. 175) A fitting close to this very long Psalm.

Blessings.

See also:

September 10 / Psalm 119:129-152

Psalm 119:129-152

Dear RTB’ers,

I am a regular at our 12-step group, Freedom Road. There I have seen people who in their lives have lived through the following verse: Keep steady my steps according to Your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. (v. 133) Addiction is an iniquity that can overcome us. We most commonly think of alcohol or drug addiction, but there are many others – smoking, gambling, work (workaholics), food, pornography, shopping, and more, and of late, social media! There are other behaviors that we might not refer to as addictions, but they have some “time mastery” over us – time on the computer, for example.

Whether we are classically “addicted” or just at a point where we see too much of a good thing in our lives, the psalmist reminds us to “steady our steps” (Establish my footsteps in Your word in the NASB). Turn that “too much time” into Scripture reading or meditating time. We might all be better off if we did that!

Blessings.

See also:

September 9 / Psalm 119:105-128

Psalm 119:105-128

Dear RTB’ers,

How often have I had to say in my heart, “You are God, I am not.” I look at the world around me and see so many wrong things and I wonder, why doesn’t God act? Our psalmist must have had the same thoughts, It is time for the LORD to act, for Your law has been broken. (v. 126) Time for Him to act, but will He? So often I have thought of Putin and Russia invading Ukraine and I wonder, why hasn’t God acted? Unfortunately, truth is, He has acted. He is always acting, in His time, in His way, ways that we cannot see…

God is God, I am not. Pray and move on.

Blessings.

See also:

September 8 / Psalm 119:81-104

Psalm 119:81-104

Dear RTB’ers,

I often wonder who wrote Psalm 119. All the persecution he endures sounds a lot like David: How long must Your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? The insolent have dug pitfalls for me; they do not live according to Your law. All Your commandments are sure; they persecute me with falsehood; help me! They have almost made an end of me on earth… (vv. 84-87a) And more…! Additionally, many Bible scholars favor an author who endured persecution during the Exile in Babylon. We’ll never know; I tend to favor David as the author. So many of the verses sound like his laments.

I have more understanding than all my teachers… I understand more than the aged… (vv. 99a, 100a) These are hard statements to make, but many Christians often find that they (we!) disagree with scientists and a variety of research findings on creation, evolution, human sexuality, etc. Again, we’ll never know, but being true to Scripture can never hurt!

Blessings.

See also: