Skip to main content

Psalm 73:1-3 Truly God is good - Day 265

This is one of those "mile marker" days.  You are now less than 100 days from the end of this year's trip through the Bible.  I know that you may be behind schedule.  As you know I have been behind on writing devotionals for sometime.  But the discipline of reading and meditating is what God delights in.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit delight when we spend time in His presence.

Blessings,

Jeff

You may have heard variations on the question "Why do bad things happen to good people?".  The psalmist asks a different question, "Why do good things happen to bad people?"  So let us meditate on the first 3 verses.

1. He affirms what God has revealed about His nature in scripture.  God's covenant relationship is the promise of blessing to those keep his commandments and listen to his voice.  He shows that he is good to Israel as a nation and to individuals who are pure in heart.  

2. He confesses that he was envious of the arrogant because he saw that they were prosperity of the wicked.  It appeared to him that God was also good to the arrogant and the wicked because they were prosperous.  

What can we learn?

God's goodness to Israel and the pure in heart is not the exactly the same as prosperity.  The health and wealth heresy says that God must give you stuff if you believe. Physical blessing is the proof of spiritual blessing.  Bible shows that spiritual blessing may result in physical blessing, but even in difficult time the spiritual blessing is still present.  God is with every believer in the midst of hardship.

God defines goodness.  God's sovereignty is that He does all things for His glory and our good.  The finite creature has no say in what is good for him.  The world tells us that we get to define this and the world is full of people who think they are living the good life.  But is really the broad road that leads to destruction.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2 Chronicles 33:7-9 Thoughts on Davidic covenant - Day 362

Good morning faithful readers, The finish line is in sight!!!  One of the themes of scripture is that God is a covenant keeping God.  There are many between God and man. Adam, Noah, David are examples.  Covenants are more than promises.  They are made between a superior and inferior with conditions for each side and blessing and penalties based on keeping the conditions.  These are covenants of works which fallen man was unable to keep.  Thanks be to God that the Father made a covenant of grace with Christ, the second Adam, which he fully kept. Blessings, Jeff The promise in v8 was made to David when he had planned to build the temple and God promised to build him a house forever. (2 Sam 7:10).  Seems like there are only two possibilities about Manasseh's disobedience.  Either he knew of this covenant that God had made with his 13th great grandfather and chose to disregard it, or he didn't know of it and was unaware of the penalty.  Let's con...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Chronicles 30:16-20 Hearts set to seek the Lord - Day 359

Good morning fellow members of the household of God, After writing the devotional, I am thinking about the Passover as a household event.  In ancient Israel, the physical household of man was covered by the blood of the lamb.  Now, it is the spiritual household of God that is covered by the blood of the Lamb. Blessings, Jeff The account of the greatest celebration of Passover since time of Solomon (v 26).   Observations: One of the things that made this one great is participation of some of the tribes from the northern kingdom.  Israel was a united kingdom and Solomon and now toward the end of the northern kingdom, there is at least a semblance of being united. God allows some exemptions: Who offers the sacrifice:  The original Passover was a family by family sacrifice of a lamb.  However in  Deuteronomy 16:5-6 this changed to a centralized location once they entered the promised land.  (You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Chronicles 35:23-26 Lament for the last good king - Day 364

Good morning fellow exiles and pilgrims, One more day of devotions.  We are indeed exiles and pilgrims in this world as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  The 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks can serve as a reminder that this world is not our home. Blessings, Jeff The lamentations for Josiah written by Jeremiah.  However, the book of Lamentations does not include any reference to Josiah as they are focused on the fall of Jerusalem.  While these lost lamentations were "made the rule" there are only 4 more kings and none of them were good like Josiah and none died in Jerusalem.  The phrase "to this day" generally refers to the time of the author (post exile).  Taken together, it may be that these laments were for the last good king and during the exile the people were longing for the next good king. Zerubbabel in a way was the next good king as temple and Jerusalem were rebuilt. But Jesus truly was the next king and He...
Post a Comment
Read more