When we look at the world around us, we find 7.8 billion people with 6,500 spoken languages in 193 countries and every one of us is unique. It is easy to see how we could get caught up in the complexity of things around us and religious people sometimes do. Yet, the Bible offers us a simple truth about life in Psalm 133:1 (LEB) “Look, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity” and then tells us why in Psalm 133:3b (LEB) Yahweh commanded the blessing—life forever. It is good for us to enjoy the life God has given us. And, in the midst of all of creation, we are each Psalm 139:14 (LEB) “fearfully and wonderfully made”. God has written a plan for us in Psalm 139:16 (LEB) Your eyes saw my embryo, and in your book they all were written—days fashioned for me when there was not one of them. Sadly, we fall short because there are forces against us. But, sometimes our enemy is simply our own stubborn will. So, here is another simple truth; we sometimes need correction. While we may not like to hear it, we need to receive the truth when it is spoken to us in love as in Psalm 141:5 (LEB) Let a righteous one strike me in kindness, and let him chasten me.
Look How Good and How Pleasant
Psalm 133:1-3
People sometimes make Christianity very complicated by adding rules and demands and traditions. There are though, places like this that remind us that it was God that called us to himself and it is God that blesses, as it says in Psalm 133:3 “Yahweh commanded the blessing – life forever”. And what does that blessing look like? It is in
Psalm 133:1 (LEB) Look, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.
It looks like unity. It looks like brothers, families, dwelling together in peace. It also though, looks like oil running down as it says in
Psalm 133:2 (LEB) It is like the fragrant oil upon the head, running down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, that runs down upon the edges of his robes.
The blessing is fragrant, you can smell it and it smells good, but it is a bit messy, you can’t control how it flows or where exactly it flows, it flows where it will in a way that religion can’t prescribe. You must simply let the blessing flow where it will so let it.
Because of Your Loyal Love
Psalm 138:1-8
You Know It Completely
I Am Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Psalm 139:13-24
How do you think about yourself? Have people demeaned you? Have people told you that you are worthless? Have people discounted or belittled your ideas and refused your input? If so, they are missing something valuable because you are God’s creation in
Psalm 139:13 (LEB) Indeed you created my inward parts; you wove me in my mother’s womb.
This idea that God wove us implies intricate hands-on care, that we were handcrafted by God in
Psalm 139:15 (LEB) My frame was not hidden from you, when I was created secretly, and intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Even more than this, God wrote His perfect will and plan for your life from the very beginning in
Psalm 139:16 (LEB) Your eyes saw my embryo, and in your book they all were written—days fashioned for me when there was not one of them.
Think about this, there is a perfect and blessed path that God has for each of us and it is there for us to discover and walk as we commune with Him from day to day in
Psalm 139:17 (LEB) And to me, how precious are your thoughts, O God; how vast is their sum.
There is though, an enemy, the thief, that will rob us, kill us, destroy us if he can and how much have we lost to him? But Jesus Christ is come to fulfill God’s plan of blessing for us in
John 10:10 (LEB) The thief comes only so that he can steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and have it* abundantly.
Rescue Me From Evil Men
Strike Me In Kindness
Psalm 140:1-13
Have you ever had to tell someone to listen to you? Have you ever wondered if God is listening? He is. But what is it that you are saying? Are your words as incense as in
Psalm 141:2 (LEB) Let my prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my palms as the evening offering.
The reality is that not everything that comes out of our mouths is good and sometimes it isn’t even what we want. This is why he says in
Psalm 141:3 (LEB) Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.
There is though, a surprising comment here. Are you willing to hear what a righteous friend has to say? Will you listen to correction? Correction isn’t always pleasant, in fact as it says here “strike me” in
Psalm 141:5 (LEB) Let a righteous one strike me in kindness, and let him chasten me. It is oil for my head; let not my head refuse. For still my prayer is against their evil deeds.
We are to be honest with one another and always speak the truth, but in love as in
Ephesians 4:15 (LEB) But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow into him with reference to all things, who is the head, Christ,
Study Verses
- Psalm 133:1-3 Look How Good and How Pleasant
- Psalm 139:13-24 I Am Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
- Psalm 140:1-13 Strike Me In Kindness
Today’s Reading
- Psalm 133:1-3
- Psalm 138:1-8
- Psalm 139:1-24
- Psalm 140:1-13
- Psalm 141:1-10
