Month: January 2025

Week 5  Psalm 28

Verse one says: to you, O Lord, I call; my rock…be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.
There’s a couple of things here about the Lord’s silence: a) it’s undesirable and b) it’s like being in-the-pit. One thing I wasn’t sure about was whether going down-to-the-pit just meant being dead or if it also implied descending into hell. Which would mean that if the pit is hell then hell (among whatever-all things are going on there) is a silence place.
I’d hesitate to say that hell will be a place of complete silence. There could be audible noises – maybe the background din of activities going on. Or there could be verbal interaction among people there. But what there’s not going to be is any communication from the Lord. Dead silence.
A couple of days ago I read: the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Currently – in the living world – there’s some kind of celestial proclamation being produced. But I think it’s safe to say that in hell that type of signal will be lacking. There’ll be no heavens declaring the glory of the Lord in hell. There might be a bunch of inconsequential noise. But a selective silence.
Which I realize is pretty speculative. But a concern if it’s true.

Note: quotes from Psalm 28:1 & 19:1 (ESV). Reading report: 145 of 1189 chapters read as of January 31 .

Week 5  Leviticus 1-16

If someone asked me what book of the bible I thought was the hardest one to sit down and read through I’d say Leviticus.
One reason Leviticus is such mind-numbing and terrible read is that it kind of buries me with details that are of no interest & no value & no relevance to me.
So this year my approach to reading Leviticus was to a) accept that i have to read the uninteresting & valueless & irrelevant content but b) process it by mentally dismissing those parts (not exactly ignoring them…but not letting them dominate my thinking). The point was to see if I could locate anything hidden-in-the-weeds – useful generalities among the non-useful specifics (so for instance I disregarded details about animals (blood skin kidneys fat liver entrails). I’d look for usable content behind those details.
Here’s some examples of basic ideas I found. Sacrifice. Offerings. Guilt. Atonement. Forgiveness. Unfaithfulness. Holy. Consecrated. Clean. Purification. I found a few others but this looked like a pretty good starter list.
One intriguing example is a triad of linked values in chapter 5: if anyone sins…he shall bear his iniquity. He shall bring to the priest…an offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him…and he shall be forgiven. It is a guilt offering; he has indeed incurred guilt before the Lord.
Sin > iniquity > guilt > offering > atonement > forgiveness.
Seems like slim-pickings for 16 whole chapters. Still…the ideas are about as fundamental as I’m going to find.

Note: quote from Leviticus 5:17-19 (ESV)

Week 5  Psalm 23

This one is known as the Shepherd Psalm because it starts out talking about a shepherd & sheep (although David makes it clear who-is-who in the psalm. The shepherd is the Lord. The sheep is me).
David only talks about regular-sounding shepherd-&-sheep things (green pastures and still waters) for a couple of verses. Then he moves on to other things: the shepherd restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness (the bible I’m reading says paths of righteousness = in right paths).
If I had to pick a focal verse in the Shepherd Psalm that would be it. The Lord a) restores my soul and b) leads me along the right paths.
It looks like there are two kinds of souls: restored souls & unrestored souls.
And two kinds of paths: right paths & wrong paths.
Given the choice my personal preference would be a restored soul & a right path.
One obvious concern for me is that David didn’t tip me off about getting my soul restored. Didn’t spell out how I stay on the right track. I could complain about David’s lack of details. But I’m guessing that he might just say “well keep on reading! You’ve got another 127 psalms to go”.
I think the psalm’s main objective is to remind me about what my objectives are – what I’m aiming at.

Note: quote is from Psalm 23:3 (ESV). Some people might prefer verse six to verse three. I’d admit that it’s a good one too.

Week 5  Exodus 18

There’s only one Jethro in the bible: Jethro the priest of Midian.
Jethro was Moses’ father-in-law. After Moses had escaped from Egypt he settled in Midian and married a woman named Zipporah – Jethro’s daughter. By chapter 18 Jethro already had a long connection with Moses. I’ve thought for a long time that Jethro was an okay guy. Recently though I’ve had a niggling doubt.
The thing is this: Jethro observed his son-in-law’s work regimen and figured he’d burn out. So he advised Moses to offload some of his responsibilities. And Moses did just that: Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
What surprises me is that Exodus says nothing about the Lord authorizing the organizational change.
Was it bad or dangerous advice? I don’t think so.
Was Jethro a friendly & believing advisor? Sounds like it (he had told Moses that: now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods).
Was Moses reprimanded for taking independent action? Doesn’t look like.
Is there any law against taking some personal initiative? Not really.
So here’s the thing.  I don’t necessarily think that Jethro’s advice was not good. From outside appearances it was realistic practical sensible & efficient. But that’s not my concern. My concern is that there’s no hint that the advice came from the Lord. And good advice not endorsed by the Lord could end up being questionable advice.

Note: quotes from Exodus 18:1 24 10-11 (NASB)

Week 4  Exodus 3

When the Lord met Moses in the wilderness and told him to return to Egypt to free Israel he also told him: I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
The reason I stopped reading at that point was because I remembered that the Lord had promised Abraham: to your offspring I give…the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.
The lists aren’t duplicates but there’s plenty of overlap. Both name the Canaanites Hittites Amorites Perizzites & Jebusites. I’m not too worried about the discrepancy since we’re talking about the same geographic region.
When Abraham first arrived in Canaan the Canaanite tribes lived there. But the Lord promised him that that exact land was for Israel. Not yet. But eventually all the tribes would be displaced (although eventually took a long time coming).
So there was a land tenure system in place with a land-owner and land-users. The Lord owned the land. The local tribes used it.
The tribes got to occupy the land for centuries (long enough that they figured it was theirs). But the land-owner had plans to eventually shift the right of land-use to Israel.

Note: quotes from Exodus 3:17 & Genesis 15:18-21 (ESV). I posted on the tribes on January 3 & 4 2025: ‘an unexplained curse’ and ‘a nasty development’

 

Week 4  Genesis 47

Jacob emigrated to Egypt as an old man. When the Pharaoh asked him how old he was Jacob said he was 130. The king didn’t ask for a quality-of-life assessment but Jacob went on to say: few and unpleasant have been the years of my life (the note in the margin said that unpleasant literally meant evil).
I checked a couple of dozen other versions. Quite a few used the word evil. Others said things like hard. Difficult. Sad. Troubled. Bad.
I paged back to do a quick review of Jacob’s story:
• he ripped-off his brother Esau. Twice
• Esau wanted to murder him (so Jacob bugged-out)
• Jacob married the girl-of-his-dreams (after marrying the girl-of-his-nightmares)
• got a couple of excellent promises from the Lord
• worked like a dog & got rich
• eventually mended-fences with Esau
• his daughter was raped (so his sons killed the rapist)
• the love-of-his-life died
• his father died
• his favourite son was killed
• his favourite son wasn’t dead – he miraculously resurfaced in Egypt.
If I drew up a two-column table of Jacob’s life there’d be some bad & sad things in Column A. Column B would show some definite upsides & pluses to Jacob’s life. Column A Evils. Column B Goods.
There aren’t many bible characters bigger than Jacob. He was one of the great & famous patriarchs of the whole Jewish race. But getting near the end he figured that he’d lived a pretty dismal Column A life.

Note: quote from Genesis 47:9 (NASB)

Week 4  Psalm 9

Sometimes I think about justice and fairness (more accurately I think about injustice and unfairness).
This psalm says quite a bit about the Lord’s justice. About the way he adjudicates & resolves everything that’s going on. About how the Lord judging righteously. Fairly. Equitably.
Which is good to know since in a pretty regular way people get ground-down & brutalized & terrorized by other people. And some people get murdered.
I noticed this phrase about murdered people: he who requires blood remembers them (the note in the margin says that requires blood also means avenges bloodshed).
This is a very helpful fact to keep in mind – the Lord avenges murders. I check a couple of other versions:
He who avenges blood is mindful of them (mindful of murdered people)
The one who seeks an accounting for bloodshed remembers them
When He avenges blood, He remembers them.
I think the verse registered with me because I just read the story about Cain murdering his brother. The Lord said to Cain: the voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. Still…Cain got to live his life. Got married. Had a family – a pretty successful family. In the meantime Abel’s blood was left crying in the ground. Seems unfair.
So David’s psalm is a help: he who requires blood remembers them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

Note: quotes from Psalm 9:12 (NASB CSB ESV NKJV). Genesis 4:10 (NASB)

Week 3  Psalm 9

Today I had one of those bible-reader’s days…a day where big-&-pressing-&-preoccupying things are at the front of the line.
Usually I have a typical day. The routine is to start with Step 1 (when I have a time to read).  Then Step 2 begins (I get on with the rest of my day).
The thing is that some days it’s hard to keep Step 1 & 2 separated.
Today my mental list of things-to-do-today had several key items on it:
Key Item #1
Key Item #2
Key Item #3
Every day has things-to-do. Not every day has Key-Things-to-do. Things that distract. Intrude. Prevent reading-focus. Things that’re  basically reading interferers.
So I start reading psalm 9: I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
But today that metamorphizes into something more like ‘I’ll try to give thanks to you Lord (although I do have Key Item #1 in the back of my mind)’.
I guess there’s likely recommended ways to get mental mastery over intrusive things. But some days it’s tough to make them work.
Anyway…I think there’s a simple Reading Concentration Hierarchy:
1. Reading with attention & focus (my preferred option)
2. Reading while mentally distracted (this is the thorny one. Hard to predict. Hard to avoid. Hard to manage).
3. Not reading (technically this one really shouldn’t be on the list & I try to avoid it like-the-plague. Not reading is a simple habit to start but very difficult to break.)

Note: quote from Psalm 9:1-2 (NIV)

Week 3  Genesis 38

The story of Judah is a curious & interesting one about some shenanigistic sexual deceptions & misadventures. But it isn’t one of my favorite OT stories. I read it and wonder: What’s the Point?
I think there are (at least) three types of stories in the OT:
Type #1. Stories about good people who live pretty good lives. These stories illustrate how I should act & live. They’re stories of reputable people who I can imitate (for instance the story of Job).
Type #2. By contrast these are stories about people who aren’t good and who don’t live exemplary lives. Stories that illustrate how I shouldn’t act & live. They’re about disreputable people who I don’t want to imitate (for instance the story of Solomon in his later years).
Type #3. Stories about people who might be reputable or might not be. These stories aren’t there to tell me about a person I should or shouldn’t imitate. They’re there for some other reason that I have to figure out.
The story of Judah is one of those Type #3 stories. And I figure that Judah’s story is likely there for just one reason. Judah’s Extended Family Line will eventually become the Dominant & Primo Line of the Abraham clan. And that line runs through Judah & Tamar’s son Perez.
Perez is in the family line running from Abraham-to-Jesus. His name eventually reappears in Matthew 1:3 (about 900 chapters later). It’s a bit of a wait. But when I get there I won’t ask: who is Perez?  Genesis 38 already told me.

Week 2  Psalm 4

I see the pre-psalm subtitle first: “For the choir director; on stringed instruments”. I already knew that some psalms were lyrics put to music. But today I wonder how many psalms are Musical Psalms.
I paged through all 150 of them looking at the subtitles (it was a quick search so the numbers are approximate).
I was mostly looking for the subtitle “For the choir director” and I found it quite a few times. But I saw that some psalms were just subtitled “A Song” (for instance there are 15 psalms that said “A Song of Ascents”). I added up everything that looked musical. I found 68.
The majority of music-psalms showed up the first half of the book.
A couple of psalms were called “A Shiggaion” (the margin said this was a “dithyrambic rhythm; or, wild passionate song”).
I found one that was for “soprano voices”.
About 10 music psalms were also called “Maskils” (the margin said “Possibly, Contemplative, or Didactic, or Skilful Psalm”).
The “Miktam” psalms were “Possibly, Epigrammatic Poems” that (it looks like) were set to music by the choir director.
Instruments were recommended – “flutes” and “stringed instruments”.
My main goal was to find out how many psalms were musical in some way and it looked like about 45% were – give-or-take.
It’s a reminder to me: psalms are not all necessarily literal & precise & concrete lists of factual statutes & regulations. Some of them sing.

Note: subtitles & quotes from NASB