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Today’s Reading

Devotional: Psalms 108-109

Psalm 108 is rather distinctive in the book of Psalms. Apart from minor changes, it is made up of parts of two other psalms. Psalm 108:1-5 follows Ps. 57:7-11; Psalm 108:6-13 follows 60:5-12. Nevertheless the “feel” of the result is startlingly different.

Both Psalms 57 and 60 find David under enormous pressure. In the former, the superscription places David in flight from King Saul, and hiding in a cave; in the latter, David and his troops have been defeated. In both cases, however, the psalm ends in praise and confidence — and the respective sections on praise and confidence from these two psalms are now joined together to make Psalm 108. Although Psalm 108 still hints at a stressful situation that includes some chastening by God (Ps. 108:11), the tone of the whole slips away from the dark moods for the early part of the other two psalms, and in comparison is flooded with adoration and confidence.

That simple fact forces us to recognize something very important. The earlier two psalms (57 and 60) will doubtless seem especially appropriate to us when we face peril — individual or corporate — or suffer some kind of humiliating defeat. The present psalm will ring in our ears when we pause to look back on the manifold goodness of God, reminding ourselves of the sweep of his sovereignty and his utter worthiness to receive our praise. It might prove especially useful when we are about to venture on some new initiative for which our faith demands fresh grounding. This perspective of changed application occurs because the same words are now placed in a new context. And that is the point.

For although all of Scripture is true and important, deserving study, reflection, and carefully applied thought, the Lord God in his wisdom did not give us a Bible of abstract principles, but highly diverse texts woven into highly diverse situations. Despite the diversity, of course, there is still only one sweeping storyline, and only one Mind ultimately behind it. But the rich tapestry of varied human experience reflected in the different biblical books and passages — not least in the different psalms — enables the Bible to speak to us with peculiar force and power when the “fit” between the experience of the human author and our experience is especially intimate.

For this astonishing wealth, God deserves reverent praise. What mind but his, what compass of understanding but his, what providential oversight over the production of Scripture but his, could produce a work so unified yet so profoundly diverse? Here, too, is reason to join our “Amen” to the words of 108:5: “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth.”

Devotional: Isaiah 48

It is one thing for God to raise up a Cyrus who will permit the Jews to return to Jerusalem. But will the Jews be willing to go? And if they are willing to return physically and rebuild Jerusalem, are they spiritually prepared to abandon the sin that sent them into exile in the first place? (Isa. 48).

It does not look good. Formally, they take their oaths in the name of the Lord, “and invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness” (Isa. 48:1). True, the captives still call themselves “citizens of the holy city” (Isa. 48:2), Jerusalem, which by the sixth century was a pile of rubble. But one of the reasons why God predicted these things, including the return of the people, is that he well knew that many of the Jews would become so enmeshed in Babylonian idolatry that they might be tempted to credit their idols with their return (Isa. 48:3–6). Like their forefathers they can be stubborn (Isa. 48:4), treacherous, and rebellious (Isa. 48:8). The “furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48:10) has taught them so little that the only reason God does not wipe them out entirely is because he wishes to preserve the honor of his own name (Isa. 48:9–11). The world must know that Babylon does not rule; God does. So he will press on, though the terrible problem of sin among his people has not been resolved, even by the exile.

The tragedy is that even in exile God’s people have been unwilling to listen (Isa. 48:1, 12, 16, 17–18). Their entire history would have been dramatically different, filled with untold blessings, if only they had paid attention to God’s commands (Isa. 48:18–19). Their “peace would have been like a river,” their “righteousness like the waves of the sea” (Isa. 48:18). Even now what they most need is to leave Babylon (Isa. 48:20–21)—not yet physically, of course, for Cyrus has not yet arisen and sanctioned it; but morally, spiritually. But if the people remain in their sin even after release from Babylon, they will poison their new freedom: “ ‘There is no peace,’ says the LORD, ‘for the wicked’ ” (Isa. 48:22)—a perennial warning no less applicable in our own day.

So God’s servant Cyrus will not provide the final answer. He may free the Jews from exile, but he cannot free them from their sin. That sets the stage for the reintroduction of the ideal Servant of the Lord, who returns in chapter 49. Indeed, he probably appears rather enigmatically in 48:16, for the one who speaks there has the Spirit upon him (as in Isa. 42:1) and is called by God (as in Isa. 49:1). But there is no doubt of his presence in Isaiah 49. In this Servant of the Lord is the only lasting succor for God’s people.

Deut. 21

Atonement for Unsolved Murders

21:1 “If in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. Accept atonement, O LORD, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

Marrying Female Captives

10 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, 12 and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. 13 And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,1 16 then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, 17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

A Rebellious Son

18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Footnotes

[1] 21:15 Or hated; also verses 16, 17

(ESV)

Psalms 108-109

With God We Shall Do Valiantly

A Song. A Psalm of David.

108:1   My heart is steadfast, O God!
    I will sing and make melody with all my being!1
  Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn!
  I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
  For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!
  That your beloved ones may be delivered,
    give salvation by your right hand and answer me!
  God has promised in his holiness:2
    “With exultation I will divide up Shechem
    and portion out the Valley of Succoth.
  Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet,
    Judah my scepter.
  Moab is my washbasin;
    upon Edom I cast my shoe;
    over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
10   Who will bring me to the fortified city?
    Who will lead me to Edom?
11   Have you not rejected us, O God?
    You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
12   Oh grant us help against the foe,
    for vain is the salvation of man!
13   With God we shall do valiantly;
    it is he who will tread down our foes.

Help Me, O Lord My God

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

109:1   Be not silent, O God of my praise!
  For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
    speaking against me with lying tongues.
  They encircle me with words of hate,
    and attack me without cause.
  In return for my love they accuse me,
    but I give myself to prayer.3
  So they reward me evil for good,
    and hatred for my love.
  Appoint a wicked man against him;
    let an accuser stand at his right hand.
  When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
    let his prayer be counted as sin!
  May his days be few;
    may another take his office!
  May his children be fatherless
    and his wife a widow!
10   May his children wander about and beg,
    seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11   May the creditor seize all that he has;
    may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12   Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
    nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13   May his posterity be cut off;
    may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14   May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD,
    and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15   Let them be before the LORD continually,
    that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!
16   For he did not remember to show kindness,
    but pursued the poor and needy
    and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.
17   He loved to curse; let curses come4 upon him!
    He did not delight in blessing; may it be far5 from him!
18   He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
    may it soak6 into his body like water,
    like oil into his bones!
19   May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
    like a belt that he puts on every day!
20   May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD,
    of those who speak evil against my life!
21   But you, O GOD my Lord,
    deal on my behalf for your name's sake;
    because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
22   For I am poor and needy,
    and my heart is stricken within me.
23   I am gone like a shadow at evening;
    I am shaken off like a locust.
24   My knees are weak through fasting;
    my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
25   I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
    when they see me, they wag their heads.
26   Help me, O LORD my God!
    Save me according to your steadfast love!
27   Let them know that this is your hand;
    you, O LORD, have done it!
28   Let them curse, but you will bless!
    They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
29   May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;
    may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!
30   With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD;
    I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31   For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
    to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.

Footnotes

[1] 108:1 Hebrew with my glory
[2] 108:7 Or sanctuary
[3] 109:4 Hebrew but I am prayer
[4] 109:17 Revocalization; Masoretic Text curses have come
[5] 109:17 Revocalization; Masoretic Text it is far
[6] 109:18 Revocalization; Masoretic Text it has soaked

(ESV)

Isaiah 48

Israel Refined for God's Glory

48:1   Hear this, O house of Jacob,
    who are called by the name of Israel,
    and who came from the waters of Judah,
  who swear by the name of the LORD
    and confess the God of Israel,
    but not in truth or right.
  For they call themselves after the holy city,
    and stay themselves on the God of Israel;
    the LORD of hosts is his name.
  “The former things I declared of old;
    they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;
    then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
  Because I know that you are obstinate,
    and your neck is an iron sinew
    and your forehead brass,
  I declared them to you from of old,
    before they came to pass I announced them to you,
  lest you should say, ‘My idol did them,
    my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’
  “You have heard; now see all this;
    and will you not declare it?
  From this time forth I announce to you new things,
    hidden things that you have not known.
  They are created now, not long ago;
    before today you have never heard of them,
    lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
  You have never heard, you have never known,
    from of old your ear has not been opened.
  For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,
    and that from before birth you were called a rebel.
  “For my name's sake I defer my anger;
    for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
    that I may not cut you off.
10   Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
    I have tried1 you in the furnace of affliction.
11   For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
    for how should my name2 be profaned?
    My glory I will not give to another.

The Lord's Call to Israel

12   “Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called!
  I am he; I am the first,
    and I am the last.
13   My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
  when I call to them,
    they stand forth together.
14   “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    Who among them has declared these things?
  The LORD loves him;
    he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15   I, even I, have spoken and called him;
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16   Draw near to me, hear this:
    from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been there.”
  And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit.
17   Thus says the LORD,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
  “I am the LORD your God,
    who teaches you to profit,
    who leads you in the way you should go.
18   Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
19   your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
  their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.”
20   Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
    declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
  send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21   They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he split the rock and the water gushed out.
22   “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

Footnotes

[1] 48:10 Or I have chosen
[2] 48:11 Hebrew lacks my name

(ESV)

Revelation 18

The Fall of Babylon

18:1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice,

  “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
    She has become a dwelling place for demons,
  a haunt for every unclean spirit,
    a haunt for every unclean bird,
    a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
  For all nations have drunk1
    the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,
  and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,
    and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,

  “Come out of her, my people,
    lest you take part in her sins,
  lest you share in her plagues;
  for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
    and God has remembered her iniquities.
  Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,
    and repay her double for her deeds;
    mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
  As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
    so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,
  since in her heart she says,
    ‘I sit as a queen,
  I am no widow,
    and mourning I shall never see.’
  For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,
    death and mourning and famine,
  and she will be burned up with fire;
    for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”

And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. 10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,

  “Alas! Alas! You great city,
    you mighty city, Babylon!
  For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.2

14   “The fruit for which your soul longed
    has gone from you,
  and all your delicacies and your splendors
    are lost to you,
    never to be found again!”

15 The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,

16   “Alas, alas, for the great city
    that was clothed in fine linen,
      in purple and scarlet,
    adorned with gold,
      with jewels, and with pearls!
17   For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”

And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,

  “What city was like the great city?”

19 And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out,

  “Alas, alas, for the great city
    where all who had ships at sea
    grew rich by her wealth!
  For in a single hour she has been laid waste.
20   Rejoice over her, O heaven,
    and you saints and apostles and prophets,
  for God has given judgment for you against her!”

21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,

  “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,
    and will be found no more;
22   and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters,
    will be heard in you no more,
  and a craftsman of any craft
    will be found in you no more,
  and the sound of the mill
    will be heard in you no more,
23   and the light of a lamp
    will shine in you no more,
  and the voice of bridegroom and bride
    will be heard in you no more,
  for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,
    and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24   And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,
    and of all who have been slain on earth.”

Footnotes

[1] 18:3 Some manuscripts fallen by
[2] 18:13 Or and slaves, and human lives

(ESV)