Daily Lesson for April 30, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 106 verses 6 through 12:

Both we and our ancestors have sinned;

    we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly.

7

Our ancestors, when they were in Egypt,

    did not consider your wonderful works;

they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,

    but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea.

8

Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,

    so that he might make known his mighty power.

9

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry;

    he led them through the deep as through a desert.

10

So he saved them from the hand of the foe,

    and delivered them from the hand of the enemy.

11

The waters covered their adversaries;

    not one of them was left.

12

Then they believed his words;

    they sang his praise.

The heading for Psalm 106 is "A Confession of Israel's Sins".  I think that says something.  It really says something to write a book of songs and prayers and include within in it a song which tells the failures of a nation and speaks the God-honest truth about its people and their forebears.

The great 20th century preacher and prophet William Sloane Coffin once said a true patriot is one who loves his or her country enough "to address her flaws".

Whoever the Psalmist was who wrote Psalm 106 was in that sense a great, great patriot. He loved his nation enough to confess its sins. I wonder how that was taken. I wonder what the debate was like in whether or not to include this Psalm in the Psalter.

In the end it was included.  And that says something about the editors.  They had the guts to let the truth about the nation be known, warts and all.  They didn't try to cover up the ugly parts.  They allowed the flaws to go on and be addressed.  For that, they too were patriots.

It's a mighty powerful thing to confess a nation's sins.  And it's a mighty scary thing also.  The only thing scarier, in fact, is the thought of leaving them unconfessed which no real patriot or real psalter could do without being less that honest to history and to God.

NOTE: We're reading the whole Bible through together this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson will come from 1 Chronicles chapters 13-16.

Daily Lesson for April 29, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 133:

How very good and pleasant it is

    when kindred live together in unity!

2

It is like the precious oil on the head,

    running down upon the beard,

on the beard of Aaron,

    running down over the collar of his robes.

3

It is like the dew of Hermon,

    which falls on the mountains of Zion.

For there the Lord ordained his blessing,

    life forevermore.

We are reading the Bible through this year and most of the daily readings have been fairly long in order to get us through both Testaments in one year.   But this morning's reading is short -- very short, because the daily readings are chronologically assigned so we can read the texts in the basic context in which they were written or written about.

Today's Psalm comes just after the anointing of David as king.  After years of civil war and unrest, David comes to the throne to unite the people -- tribes from north and south, east and west -- into one federated unity.  After generations of internecine conflict and then the disaster of Saul' kingship, David came to the throne with promise for a new day in Israel.  Unity is then the theme of this Psalm.

"How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!"  Indeed.  It is good and it is pleasant when a leader arises who can lead the people out of the curse of division and into the blessedness of unity.

May it be so for our churches, and for our cities, and for our nation, and even for our world.

Daily Lesson for April 28, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Samuel chapter 5 verses 6 through 9a:

6 The king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, even the blind and the lame will turn you back”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, which is now the city of David. 8 David had said on that day, “Whoever would strike down the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind, those whom David hates.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” 9 David occupied the stronghold, and named it the city of David.

This is the story of the conquest of Jerusalem, a city formerly called Jebus because it belonged to the Jebusites.  It was a city not altogether taken by the Joshua generation as they came into the Promised Land.

Archaeologists have now found what they believe was the ancient water shaft David and his men used to take the city.  You can find good video presentation of this on YouTube if you like.

But as triumphal as the reading is about the conquest, it is disturbing to read that the lame and blind are kept out of the city perpetually because, apparently, they were the ones who fought David in the City -- which makes sense, given that they would have been left behind along with women and children to defend the walls while the able-bodied men were out for war.  Even so, the injunction came down -- the blind and lame could not enter the Temple at the center of the City of David once it was built.

How interesting then that the two miracles we have recorded of Jesus while he was in the City of David were healings of the blind and lame.

Which is a way of telling us that those who are victimized by their circumstances ought not to be treated as criminals and all those locked out of the Temple ought to be let in . . .

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson will come from Psalm 133.

Daily Lesson for April 27, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 104 verses 24 through 34:

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

    In wisdom you have made them all;

    the earth is full of your creatures.

25

Yonder is the sea, great and wide,

    creeping things innumerable are there,

    living things both small and great.

26

There go the ships,

    and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

27

These all look to you

    to give them their food in due season;

28

when you give to them, they gather it up;

    when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

29

When you hide your face, they are dismayed;

    when you take away their breath, they die

    and return to their dust.

30

When you send forth your spirit,[g] they are created;

    and you renew the face of the ground.

31

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;

    may the Lord rejoice in his works—

32

who looks on the earth and it trembles,

    who touches the mountains and they smoke.

33

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;

    I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

34

May my meditation be pleasing to him,

    for I rejoice in the Lord.

Today's Lesson comes from one of the creation psalms, Psalm 104, a beautiful meditation on the wonders of creation, the providence and provision of God, and the delight the LORD takes in all the divine handiwork on this earth -- including us.

"May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works!"

We belong to this great web of being called creation.  Along with all the rest of the earth, and stars, and moon, we were created for God's joy and delight.  It pleased God that we might live life and give it also.

Like all the rest of creation, we too are subject to our habitat. We have our limitations, our boundaries, our finitude.  We, too, are dust.

"I will sing to the LORD as long as I live," the psalmist says. 

He knows his place.  He knows his purpose.  He knows his end.  It is all found in God, whom he is to glorify and enjoy forever.

Daily Lesson for April 24, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Chronicles chapter 6 verses 31 and 32:

31 These are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord, after the ark came to rest there. 32 They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem; and they performed their service in due order.

This morning's Lesson tells us of how David appointed the singers to serve in the Tabernacle before even the Temple was built.  It makes sense; for David was himself a musician that he would bring music into the service of the LORD.  For the making of music is a fundamentally human thing to do; and it was a gift to the Israelites to present their offerings to God accompanied by the sound of music.

The people can no longer enter the Temple now.  COVID-19 has determined that for a while.  But here the singers are, by the miracle of modern technology, singing for us still in the tabernacles of our homes.

We will come to the Temple once more.  And with the psalmist we shall say, "I was glad when the said unto me, 'Let us go unto the House of the LORD.'" 

But until then we tabernacle; and we do so with the songs of Zion in the mouths of musicians and also in our own hearts . . .

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  Readings over the weekend are from Psalms 81, 88, 92-93; 1 Chronicles chapters 7-10; and Psalms 102-104.