Reading for Sunday February 7, 2010: Psalm 37, Genesis 34, 2 Chronicles 11, Acts 3:1-4:31

On Psalm 37: The 4th verse in this psalm is well known. You are commanded to delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis seems to quote the first half of this verse often. The first part is a command, the second is a promise. When I just hear the first, I realize it is my duty to delight myself in God, to desire Him. What a strange and wonderful command! So many view Christianity as a list of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’. This ‘do’ insists that we be happy. And our happiness must be in the Lord. Not happy in the created, but the creator. I suggest a great book on the subject of desiring God. It is called ‘Desiring God‘ by John Piper. He has magnified for me the excellencies of God as shown in the Scriptures.

Reading for Wednesday February 3, 2010: Psalm 33, Genesis 29:31-30:43, 2 Chronicles 7, Luke 23:26-56

Recap of Genesis 30:

1. Leah had Reuben (1 biological)
2. Leah had Simeon (2 biological)
3. Leah had Levi (3 biological)
4. Leah had Judah (4 biological )
5. Rachel’s servant had Dan (1 adopted)
6. Rachel’s servant had Naphtali (2 adopted)
7. Leah’s servant had Gad (4 biological, 1 adopted)
8. Leah’s servant had Asher (4 biological, 2 adopted)
9. Leah had Issachar (5 biological 2 adopted)
10. Leah had Zebulun (6 biological, 2 adopted)
11. Rachel had Joseph (1 biological, 2 adopted)

Score: Hated wife-8, Loved wife-3

Once Rachel had her first son, Jacob was ready to leave his father-in-laws property and go home. But first, he made a deal where Laban gave him all of the impure looking livestock. Laban got the short end of the stick on this deal.

Reading for Tuesday February 2, 2010: Psalm 32, Genesis 29:1-30, 2 Chronicles 6, Luke 22:47-23:25

On Psalm 32: Thanks to the Study Notes by C. John Collins in the ESVSB, I noticed mirror pattern in verses 1-5 of this psalm: “forgiven … covered [Ps. 32:1] … cover … forgave [v. 5].” David starts with telling us how truly happy (blessed) someone is when his transgression is forgiven or his sin is covered. Said another way, The Lord counts no iniquity against him. But King David noticed he was miserable when he didn’t confess his sins (he kept silent). I like the phrase, ‘Keep a short account of sin’. That is, confess immediately. As opposed to God covering sin, which blots out the record of it, when we cover up our sin (verse 5), we are sinfully hiding it. I relate to David’s language, ‘my strength was dried up’, when I keep my sin concealed.

I notice only one half of the ‘double cure’ we sing about in they hymn, ‘Rock of Ages’. Recall the words: “be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure”. The first half, ‘saved from wrath’ is spoken of by words like ‘transgression forgiven’ and ‘sin is covered’. If we were just saved from the deserved wrath of God, we would escape hell and be neutral with God, but to enter heaven to be with God, we must be made pure by Christ’s righteousness. What an unfair exchange was made at the cross! Jesus took the wrath we deserved and we get the righteousness he earned.

Reading for Saturday January 30, 2010: Ps 29, Gen 27:1-40, 2Chr 3, Lk 19:47-20:44

On Second Chronicles: After David sinned by counting the people in 1 Chronicles 21, God killed 70,000 of ‘David’s’ men and sent His angel to wipe out Jerusalem. But God was gracious when David asked him to stop. The Lord had David build an altar on Ornan’s threshing floor. Then David declared this place to be God’s address. In today’s text, Solomon begins a 7 year construction project on God’s gold plated 2700 square foot home (See ESV Study bible figure on p 604 embedded in 1 Kings 6).

Side note: Solomon’s Temple was located on Mt. Moriah, the location where Abraham sacrificed Isaac. See previous post.

Reading for Friday January 29, 2010: Ps 28, Gen 26, 2 Chr2, Lk 19:28-46

Two Points on Genesis:

1. When his dad experienced a famine, he went down to Egypt, but God told Isaac not to. In the same encounter, God gave him the same promise that He gave Abraham the day he almost sacrificed Isaac. “… in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice…”
2. Like his father, Isaac said his attractive wife was his sister in order to escape death. His lie, like his father’s, was exposed with no harm to his family.

Reading for Thursday, January 28, 2010: Ps 27, Gen 25:19-34, 2 Chr 1, Lk 8:31-19:27

On Psalm: David had one thing he really wanted.  He prayed that he may dwell in the house of the Lord for his whole life. His main reason– to behold God’s beauty.  What a great reason to worship God!  Right now I’m staring at a picture of my wife and I on our wedding day.  I’m gazing at her in her white dress.  Lord, help me gaze on your beauty.  I want to see Your character so clearly and rightly that it springs my heart into passionate pleasure in You.

Today, let’s not commit the two evils that Jeremiah’s audience committed (Jer 2:13):

1)Turned away from the best pleasure (Fountain of living waters)

2) Made their own cisterns that couldn’t hold water.  That is, lesser fleeting pleasures that are not God.

I hope our reason for worshiping God will be to see his true character as beautiful.