Proverbs 3:13-5:23

See:

• May 9 (2022) / Proverbs 3:13-18
• May 10 (2022) / Proverbs 3:19-26
• May 11 (2022) / Proverbs 3:27-35
• May 12 (2022) / Proverbs 4:1-9
• May 13 (2022) / Proverbs 4:10-19
• May 14 (2022) / Proverbs 4:20-27
• May 15 (2022) / Proverbs 5:1-6
• May 16 (2022) / Proverbs 5:7-14
• May 17 (2022) / Proverbs 5:15-23

Proverbs 1-3:12

Given our rapid pace through Proverbs, I will not waste your time with extra commentary here, but I trust that you’ll read last year’s posts and seek wisdom.

See:

• May 1 (2022) / Proverbs 1:1-7
• May 2 (2022) / Proverbs 1:8-19
• May 3 (2022) / Proverbs 1:20-33
• May 4 (2022) / Proverbs 2:1-8
• May 5 (2022) / Proverbs 2:9-15
• May 6 (2022) / Proverbs 2:16-22
• May 7 (2022) / Proverbs 3:1-8
• May 8 (2022) / Proverbs 3:9-12

I Kings 3-4; II Chronicles 1

We return today for a brief dip back into the historical narrative. David is now gone. Solomon is on the throne. The Ark of the Covenant is in Jerusalem, but the Tabernacle and its altar are still at Gibeon, so Solomon goes there to sacrifice.

There at Gibeon Solomon encounters the LORD in a dream, and he humbly and wisely asks for wisdom to know how to govern the LORD’s people. The LORD grants him wisdom in full measure — along with wealth and honor. Although our text does not say so explicitly, it stands to reason that the LORD effectively answers Solomon’s prayer before he prays it, else he would not have sufficient wisdom to ask for wisdom! (By the way, that is just how salvation works for us. On our own, we are dead in our sin, with utterly no capacity or inclination to seek God. It is God Who first reaches down to us, giving us the grace to receive His grace.) What a tremendous prayer from Solomon, and what a tremendous answer from the LORD!

We may not be charged with ruling the kingdom of Israel, but we each need wisdom just the same, so may our hearts be similarly inclined to seek wisdom, asking the LORD to give it to us in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

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One more thing…

God does not leave us to just randomly “find” wisdom all on our own. He gives us His Word, some of which is expressly geared toward imparting wisdom. And so we will be diving headfirst into the Book of Proverbs tomorrow with Solomon, the wisest of men, as our teacher. Unfortunately, we’ll be racing for a week through material that we spent eight weeks on last year. To prepare, please take a look at our Introduction to Proverbs from last year. Then hold on to your hat!

Psalms 95, 97-99, 101, 110, 144

I hope that in reading the Psalms yesterday and today we recognize that the LORD is the ultimate King, sovereign over all of creation. He is working out His purposes, with the Lord Jesus Christ sitting at His right hand. (Acts 2:33-34; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; I Peter 3:22)

The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand,
until I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

Psalm 110:1

According to our custom, the right of sitting is offered to one who, like a victor returning from having accomplished a great deed, deserves to be seated for the sake of honor. And so the Man Jesus Christ, Who overcame the devil by His suffering and unlocked the underworld by His resurrection, returning to heaven like a Victor after having accomplished a great deed, hears from God the Father, “Sit at My right hand.”

Maximus of Turin

That is reality, but do we live accordingly? Do we honor Christ the King in how we live and what we say? Do we submit to His authority?

See also:

• August 21 (2022) / Psalm 95
• August 23 (2022) / Psalm 97
• August 24 (2022) / Psalm 98
• August 25 (2022) / Psalm 99
• August 27 (2022) / Psalm 101
• October 7 (2022) / Psalm 110
• December 23 (2022) / Psalm 144

Psalms 2, 20-21, 72, 93-94

The LORD reigns; He is robed in majesty!

Psalm 93:1

It is good to remember Who is really in control…

See also:

• January 2 (2022) / Psalm 2
• January 26 (2022) / Psalm 20
• January 27 (2022) / Psalm 21:1-7
• January 28 (2022) / Psalm 21:8-13
• June 25 (2022) / Psalm 72
• August 18 (2022) / Psalm 93
• August 19 (2022) / Psalm 94:1-15
• August 20 (2022) / Psalm 94:16-23

I Chronicles 26:20-29:30

For all things come from You, and of Your own have we given You.

I Chronicles 29:14b

This verse is often quoted in church before taking up the offering. Now you know where it comes from. I expect that we can all see the truth of this prayer of David. Given that God is the Creator, what do we have that we can possibly claim as our own? And what can we give to God that He did not give to us to begin with?

And yet…

Do we live (and give) as though we truly believe it? Really?

Psalms 47-49, 84-85, 87

We have thought on Your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of Your temple.

Psalm 48:9

I think it is safe to assume that the psalmist originally had the Temple building in mind. But Saint Ambrose takes things further. He recognizes that the Temple points beyond itself to Christ and that the ultimate Temple of God is Christ’s body:

God’s true temple is the body of Christ, and in that body lies the purification of all our sins. Truly, that flesh is God’s temple, and in it there is no contagion of sin. On the contrary, it was itself the sacrifice that takes away the sin of all the world. That flesh is indeed God’s temple, and it shone in God’s image. In it there dwelled the fullness of divinity in a bodily manner, for Christ is himself that fullness… In that temple the psalmist tells us, “We have received your mercy.”

Saint Ambrose on Psalm 48:9

The notion of Christ’s body’s being the true Temple does not originate with Ambrose. Jesus Himself says as much:

So the Jews said to Him, “What sign do You show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking about the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

John 2:18-22

That is good food for thought as we work through the Psalms…

See also:

• April 22 (2022) / Psalm 47
• April 23 (2022) / Psalm 48
• April 24 (2022) / Psalm 49:1-9
• April 25 (2022) / Psalm 49:10-20
• August 6 (2022) / Psalm 84
• August 7 (2022) / Psalm 85
• August 9 (2022) / Psalm 87

Psalms 15, 24, 42-46

Today we return to the Psalms, a couple by David and some by the Sons of Korah.

I find it interesting that the descendants of Korah turn out so well, with 11 psalms attributed to them. Recall from Numbers 16 that Korah himself led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. The LORD caused the earth to open up under the rebels’ feet, but Korah’s sons kept their distance, did not join the rebellion, and did not die. And now the Sons of Korah help to lead worship, producing psalms that we still use today.

We all likely have some pretty nasty characters in our ancestry, but we are not doomed to follow in their footsteps. The flip side of that coin is also true. We may well have some godly ancestors, too, and that is a great advantage in life, but that does not itself make us godly.

Are you living your parents’ (or grandparents’ or …) lives? Are you stuck in their destructive patterns? Or are you leaning on their faith? We should all acknowledge the influence of our ancestors for good or ill — or both. But we are not our ancestors. Perhaps it’s time to live our own life in Christ.

See also:

• January 16 (2022) / Psalm 15
• March 16 (2022) / Psalm 24
• April 14 (2022) / Psalm 42
• April 15 (2022) / Psalm 43
• April 16 (2022) / Psalm 44:1-8
• April 17 (2022) / Psalm 44:9-16
• April 18 (2022) / Psalm 44:17-26
• April 19 (2022) / Psalm 45:1-9
• April 20 (2022) / Psalm 45:10-17
• April 21 (2022) / Psalm 46

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Two more things…

Who then will climb up there and stay there? Only a person innocent in action and pure in thought. ‘One who has not received his soul in vain,’ that is, a person who has not consigned his or her soul to the things that pass away but realizes that it [the soul] is immortal and longs for a settled, changeless eternity.

Saint Augustine on Psalm 24:4

Let us burn together with this thirst; Let us run together to the fountain of understanding. Let us long … rather for it as a hart yearns for a spring… Let us long for the wellspring of which Scripture says, “with you is the fountain of life”… Long for the fountains of water. With God is the fountain of life, a fountain that can never dry up… God has everything that will refresh you. He is able to fill anyone who comes to him… This is what I am thirsting for, to reach him and to appear before him. I am thirsty on my pilgrimage, parched in my running, but I will be totally satisfied when I arrive.

Saint Augustine on Psalm 42:1

I Chronicles 23-26:19

Chronicles wastes no time on the juicy details of how Solomon attains the throne, stating simply that David makes him king. (I Ch. 23:1) Instead, the Chronicler has a very different focus: worship, and all that it entails. Hence, we read about David’s preparations for building the Temple as well as his organizing of the Levites into their various divisions — 24,000 charged with the work in the house of the LORD, 6,000 officers and judges, 4,000 gatekeepers, and 4,000 musicians — all in the service of the LORD.

It may seem like we are reading the names of all 38,000 Levites in today’s chapters, but I hope that does not bog us down. All those names should remind us that we are talking about real people with real lives, real cares and concerns, and real duties to perform. And David’s decisions here shape those lives for generations to come.

We may think of David as a warrior or as a musician and psalmist, but how often do we think of him as a planner and administrator? Yet those are the roles that we see him filling here. They are roles that are every bit as necessary (though perhaps not as exciting to read about) as his other roles. If we pause to think about it, over a forty-year reign as king, David probably spent a good deal more time on these kinds of organizational activities than he did on the battlefield. There may not be much high drama here, but in organizing the Levites we can again see David’s heart for God, his desire to honor and glorify God and to set things in order so that Israel can properly worship the LORD after David is gone.

Do we have that kind of heart? Are we focused on worship?