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April 5, Sunday
Reading B95 — Psalm 136 — Enduring Love Audio: Psalm 136 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Remembering — Almost this whole psalm is about remembering the greatness of God and the wonders He performed in creation and throughout Israel’s up-and-down history. God rescued them from Egypt (vv. 10-12), led them through the Red Sea and the wilderness (vv. 13-15), brought them into the Promised Land (vv. 17-18), and even added to that heritage (vv. 19-22). It is good to remember the things God did in the past, not only for Israel but also for us. Those acts were all performed because “His steadfast love endures forever,” a reminding expression repeated at the end of each verse. Our response is to “Give thanks,” a command that begins and ends this psalm. It would be a good exercise at the end of each day for us to remember good things God has done for us that day and thank Him for what He has done. There is one other kind of remembering in this chapter: “It is he who remembered us in our low estate” (v. 23). God remembers us. Since we are needy, weak, and failing, He remembers us and helps us. We should give thanks to Him for that as well.
April 6, Monday
Reading B96 — Psalm 134, 146 — Praise the Lord (A) Audio: Psa. 134, Psa. 146
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Blessing and Praising — These two psalms open in a similar way: “… bless the LORD…” (134:1) and “Praise the LORD!” (146:1). What is the difference between blessing and praising God? We usually think of the word “bless” in the sense of something God does to us—giving us good things. But how can we give good things to God? It is helpful to know that the Hebrew word for “bless” also means to “kneel,” which suggests that it could involve worship. The Chinese Christian preacher and writer, Witness Lee, said: “To bless God is to speak well about God, to talk about God in a good way.” Even telling others about the goodness of God is one way to bless Him. In that sense, then, blessing God might be more about pointing others to His goodness, while praising God would be telling God directly about what you see of His greatness.
April 7, Tuesday
Reading B97 — Psalm 147 — Praise the Lord (B) Audio: Psalm 147 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Reasons to Praise — Yesterday, it was mentioned that Psalm 146 began with “Praise the LORD” (hallelu-yah in Hebrew). That psalm also ends with the same expression. In fact, we will see this week that each of the last five psalms in this book begins and ends the same way, with praises. Today’s psalm says that “it is good to sing praises to our God … and a song of praise is fitting” (v. 1). The second stanza reinforces that with a command to “Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving” (v. 7), which involves our attitude. Make your praise meaningful! It goes on to offer suggestions for some subjects of praise: His care for His chosen people (vv. 2-3), His creative power (vv. 4-5), His provision of food (vv. 8-9), and His display of making snow to provide future water (vv. 16-18). The psalm ends with appreciation for God’s Word given to His people Israel (v. 19), which extends to us as well, and the sad fact that people “who do not know his rules” (v. 20) are outside God’s special blessings.
April 8, Wednesday
Reading B98 — Psalm 148 — Praise the Lord (C) Audio: Psalm 148 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Raised-Up Praise — This is another psalm devoted entirely to praise. It also starts and ends with the Hebrew word, “hallelu-jah” (“Praise the LORD!”). It covers two great categories: the heavens and the earth. The heavens (vv. 1-6) include angels, hosts, heavenly bodies, and clouds. They were made and ordered to praise God. Two questions are appropriate here: Why? and how? The answer to the former is because “he commanded and they were created” (v. 5). God is their creator, supremely to be praised. The answer to how they are to praise Him is in doing what they were designed to do. All that is in the heavens points toward the Creator. Many scientists today are working hard to defeat God’s purpose by trying to prove that all of creation happened only by chance. Nope. God created it all, and it all points to Him. The psalmist then turned to the earth with its creatures, weather, mountains, trees, and people (vv. 7-13). Why are they to praise Him? It is because they are “fulfilling his word” (v. 8). He created them for that purpose. When they do what they were created to do, they are pointing to their Creator. There is one big difference for created angels and people, however, in that they have a choice whether they praise God by their words and actions. The psalm closes with a special statement about Israel and others that choose to follow God: “He has raised up … praise for all his saints” (v. 14). That is our God-assisted call to praise Him. He is our Creator and our Savior.
April 9, Thursday
Reading B99 — Psalm 149-150 — Praise the Lord (D) Audio: Psa. 149-150
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Breathing Praise — These final two psalms emphasize praise to God, Psalm 149 mentioning “praise” five times and the last psalm commanding praise 13 times. There are two places stated in the first psalm about where we are to praise God: “in the assembly” (v. 1) and “on their beds” (v. 5)—when you gather and when you are alone. Praise should be a constant attitude and frequent expression. The last psalm tells us the subject or content of our praise. It should be “for his mighty deeds … [and] his excellent greatness” (150:2)—what He has done and who He is—the Bible being a wonderful source for both. Psalm 150 ends with how we are to praise God: with instruments and with volume (vv. 3-5). Be expressive in your worship! Notice that it doesn’t say anything about quality here, only enthusiasm. The only requirement is that you must have breath (v. 6), which doesn’t leave out anyone.
April 10, Friday
Reading B100 — 1 Kings 9 — God’s Second Appearance Audio: 1 Kings 9 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Conditional Promises — Over a month ago, we considered some positive if-then promises that Solomon presented to his son in Proverbs 2. In today’s reading, we also see some if-then promises that God gave to Solomon, but some are positive and some are negative. The positive conditional promise was that “if you will walk before me … then I will establish your royal throne … forever” (1 Kings 9:4-5). The negative conditional promise was this: “But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children … then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and … I will cast out of my sight” (vv. 6-7). The key to both is obedience. There are also many positive conditional promises in the New Testament, like “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9), and “whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (Matt. 21:22). On the other hand, there are also a few negative promises, like “… if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15). I found one verse that contains both a positive and a negative promise: “… if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us” (2 Tim. 2:12). For all of these, obedience is also the key.
April 11, Saturday
Reading B101 — 2 Chron. 8 — Finishing Construction Audio: 2 Chron. 8 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Cities, Offerings, and Houses — This chapter has some interesting differences from the parallel chapter that we read yesterday in 1 Kings 9. We saw that King Hiram of Tyre was not pleased with the cities that Solomon had given him in apparent payment for the timber that Hiram had provided. He said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” (1 Kings 9:13). Then, today we read that “Solomon rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given to him” (2 Chron. 8:2). We are not told why this second set of cities were given, but Solomon apparently didn’t complain about their quality. The likelihood that 1 and 2 Kings were written by historians, while 1 and 2 Chronicles were written by priests, is obvious in seeing that the required offerings to God are presented in much greater detail in today’s reading (vv. 12-13) than in 1 Kings 9:25. One other piece of today’s reading that impressed me was that Solomon showed reverence to God by separating his Egyptian wife’s house from the holy temple grounds (v. 11). At least at this point in Solomon’s life and rule, he was diligent in honoring Yahweh. He will disappoint us later, however.
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