ReadingThru

Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 7, 1 Chronicles 17

Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the LORD had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains.”
- 2 Samuel 7:1-2

God had blessed David with peace in his kingdom and a house of cedar. David must have looked looked at his new house, then at the dusty, travel worn tent of the tabernacle and thought is wasn’t right for God to dwell in a house less impressive than his own. He must have had the best intentions, wanting to honor God. Even Nathan the prophet’s first impression was that it was a good plan. But it wasn’t God’s plan.

While it is always God’s plan to do good, every good we think to do isn’t always in God’s plans. I can’t help but think of all of the massive temples and stained glass encrusted cathedrals that have been built in God’s honor when He would have been more pleased to have us close enough to hear Him say, “This tent is just fine.”

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Today’s Reading: Psalm 89, Psalm 96, Psalm 100-101, Psalm 105, Psalm 132

I don’t usually cut and paste such large sections, but David’s Psalm 101 got me thinking:

I will sing of lovingkindness and justice,
To You, O LORD, I will sing praises.
I will give heed to the blameless way
When will You come to me?

I’m good with praising God, asking Him for a personal encounter…

I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.
I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;

Staying focused on God in even the mundane moments, avoiding distractions, good…

I hate the work of those who fall away;
It shall not fasten its grip on me.
A perverse heart shall depart from me;
I will know no evil.

Avoiding evil, can’t argue there…

Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy;
No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.

Wait a minute! Destroying slanders and arrogant people!

My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me;
He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me.

Favoring the faithful and blameless seems OK…

He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me.
Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
So as to cut off from the city of the LORD all those who do iniquity.

Destroying people again!

The thing to remember here is that God, through David, is more trying to get a point across than to suggest that we, as contemporary Christians should be killing neighbors for slander. Like Jesus’s sugestion that we pluck out an eye ( Matthew 18:9 ) rather than sin, David is saying that we should be willing to go to extremes to avoid sin and prevent the distructive influence of iniquity around us and in our homes.

I had a good Christian friend who was fond of saying, “a fanatic is anyone one the believes a little more than we do.”

The question is, who sees us as a fanatic? How far are we willing to go to prevent iniquity from corrupting our households? I’m not sure I would be destroying anyone, but, is tossing them out the door too fanatical?

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Today’s Reading: Psalm 1-2, Psalm 15, Psalm 22-24, Psalm 47, Psalm 68

The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!
Psalm 2:2-3

Why do people see a life submitted to God as one of bondage, constraints, and rules? I don’t know how many times I have heard someone talk about Christianity in terms of the “rules”. Even when someone complains that the church is full of hypocrites, what they are really saying is that there are a bunch of rules to follow and the people in the church don’t follow those rules.

Implied in this view, is that any alternative such as living without God or choosing some other worldview will result in a life without the “fetter” put on us by God.

But every worldview, every road we choose in life has rules to follow. “Casting away” the precepts of one lifestyle seems like just a tacit acceptance of some other set of rules and expectations. The problem with turning way from God is that God’s “rules” for us a just simply truth. To turn from the truth is to turn to deception. If the truth of God seems like fetters and cords, then the bondage that results from living in deception has to be like leg irons and heavy chains!

Bob Dylan had it just about right:

You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Much of the reading today focuses on living a holy, righteous life. Being made righteous, that only happens by grace through faith in Christ, but expressing the righteousness imparted to us at the foot of the cross by living a life that confirms that gift. We desire to live a holy life, not in hopes of earning something by it, but to honor and express the gift given to us.

In the absense of that gift, without a personal knowledge of Jesus and the debt he paid for us, I guess I CAN see how people see only a set of instructions, rules, and constraints.

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Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 5:11-6:23, 1 Chronicles 13-16

In today’s reading David get a place to call home. His position as King has finally solidified and the people accept him as God’s chosen leader, but his neighbors aren’t as convinced. The King of Tyre send a piece offering of materials and laborers to build his new house, but the Philistines prepare to go to war against him.

Logically, there would seem to be only two choices when it comes to God’s chosen leaders - you support or oppose them, you are for or against them.

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Today’s Reading: Psalm 106-107

The Psalmist of 106 chronicles the ease with which the people turned to God and drifted away again and again. I was thinking about the levels of religious pridefulness the Jewish priests and leaders had achieved by the time Jesus was sent. It is hard to believe that they considered themselves the “People of the Book”, when, if they had been reading the book, they should have realized how close to falling away from God they usually were.

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Today’s Reading: Psalm 133

Wow, this has to be the shortest reading in the reading plan.

In this short Song of Ascent, you can almost hear the longing in King David’s words for the simpler times when he hung out with his brothers, the famous mighty men. He must have longed for a time that wasn’t burdened by the issues and politics that must have frustrated such a man of action.

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Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-10, 1 Chronicles 11-12

I like the tales of David’s mighty men. One of the issues every leader has to face is leading people who maybe strong or more skilled than the leader himself. A weak leader will often pick less skilled or weaker leaders under himself to prevent the chance that one of the followers will rise up and over throw the leader. A strong leader makes it a point to find those who are better at the skills needed to succeed.

David must have been a very strong leader, because his mighty men often far exceeded his own exploits.

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