I noticed one verse in yesterday's reading and two in today's that have great meaning for me. In order:
Psalm 18:29--With your help I can advance against a troop, with my God I can scale a wall.
This is what happens when perfectly good verses in the Bible are mangled in translation. The essence of the verse is perfectly clear--we can do anything if God is with us, and our enemies are completely helpless. In fact, if you've ever attended a basketball game at Trinity, you've seen a blue banner on the scorer's table with this verse, but the verse instead reads like this:
In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.
This is the New Living Translation, and I'll have to look again, but I'm pretty sure I changed it to "With my God..." at the beginning. When in doubt, especially when reading the psalms, stick with the version that keeps the simple beauty intact. Advance against a troop, sheesh...
The second verse is 2 Samuel 22:31:
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
I don't know what I can add to this--it speaks for itself. My only comment will be that David spoke this after God delivered him from Saul, which underscores the point I've been making for most of the week, that even when the times are tough, David never forgot who his refuge and strength was, and we would do well to remember that in our own lives.
The last verse is Psalm 14:1 and is repeated verbatim in Psalm 53:1:
The fool says in his heart “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
This has always been one of my favorite verses, and in our modern times when some have decided to elevate themselves to divinity status, I think a modern rewrite would state:
The fool says in his heart " I SURE HOPE there is no God..."
Mistaken thinking like this will have eternal consequences, which is why it's so important for us to do what we can to spread the message of salvation as far and wide as we can. We're surrounded by fools on a daily basis (I suspect you knew that), and the unfortunate aspect of being a fool is that they usually can't be reasoned with or educated. It's one thing to be mistaken or misinformed--we all are on numerous issues (including Christianity, my friends--I absolutely guarantee that all of us hold some element of belief that is dead wrong--however, it won't matter, because these issues are HOW issues, such as when should we baptize, confirm, etc. as opposed to WHAT issues, where we all agree they're important. I'll probably expand this point somewhere in our New Testament reading). It's not pleasant or fun to talk with fools, and I've spent the better part of my life quarantining myself from them, but when I consider the consequences for them, I probably should change my thinking and do what I can to engage them.
Mistaken thinking like this will have eternal consequences, which is why it's so important for us to do what we can to spread the message of salvation as far and wide as we can. We're surrounded by fools on a daily basis (I suspect you knew that), and the unfortunate aspect of being a fool is that they usually can't be reasoned with or educated. It's one thing to be mistaken or misinformed--we all are on numerous issues (including Christianity, my friends--I absolutely guarantee that all of us hold some element of belief that is dead wrong--however, it won't matter, because these issues are HOW issues, such as when should we baptize, confirm, etc. as opposed to WHAT issues, where we all agree they're important. I'll probably expand this point somewhere in our New Testament reading). It's not pleasant or fun to talk with fools, and I've spent the better part of my life quarantining myself from them, but when I consider the consequences for them, I probably should change my thinking and do what I can to engage them.
Scott
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