Week 14 Psalm 91
When it comes to bible-reading a bible-reader’s Objective #1 is to just read-through the bible. For some readers there’s also a supplementary objective – Objective #1b – something like ‘I want to understanding the bible better’.
Psalm 91 reminded me that there’s another type of bible reader with a different objective. Midway through the psalm the writer says that God: orders his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone. It’s a familiar verse. A good verse. But it’s a verse the devil used to try to goad Jesus into jumping off the temple roof. After all: (God) orders his angels to protect you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.
So the Lord’s reply was: the Scriptures also say: “do not test the Lord your God”. The Lord was quoting Moses’ words: do not test the Lord your God as you did when you complained at Massah (at Massah Israel complained about being thirsty and Moses asked them: why are you testing the Lord?)
Anyway…in this case the devil’s objective in reading the bible was to use it to try to test-the-Lord with a crazy assistance-in-dying suggestion.
So my take-away is that there are legitimate reasons for reading the bible. Any others I’d best avoid.
Note: quotes from Psalm 91:11-12 Matthew 4:6 4:7 Deuteronomy 6:16 Exodus 17:4 (NLT)