Week 18 Psalm 115
One of the problems with reading through the bible is that a big percentage of the content – especially in the OT – doesn’t have too much connection to me. There’s an Application Disconnect (that feeling of this-content-don’t-mean-nuthin’-to-me).
So anyway a couple of verses into the psalm I started getting the feeling that I was reading advice aimed at someone else:
O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
This was operational advice for a) Israel and b) Aaron’s family.
But then I got to a third group – a more general audience:
You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
What Israel was told to do (trust in the Lord) and what Aaron’s family was told to do (trust in the Lord) was the same advice for anyone at all who feared-the-Lord (trust in the Lord).
So what started out seeming pretty inapplicable turned around. If I revere the Lord then I’ll set store by him (and I guess the flipside is true too: that if I don’t revere then I won’t trust).
Note: quote from Psalm 115:9-11 (ESV). It was helpful that in my bible’s margin it said that ‘fear’ is roughly equal to ‘revere’. So fearing the Lord isn’t – for example – like being terrorized by a zombie.