1st March
Read Psalm 150
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
Psalm 150 is a wonderful conclusion to the book for it is an invitation to praise God with all the enthusiasm and skill his people have, set out in musical terms. As the Hallelujah chorus fits the high point of Handels Messiah so Psalm 150 takes all that has been said and encourages the people to join in a great Hallel of praise to God. It closes fittingly with “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord”
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Isaiah 61:1-3
Readers of the New Testament will immediately recognise this chapter because it was the passage that was handed to Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth after he returned from the wilderness temptation from the Devil. The passage can be read in Luke 4:18. It is truly a messianic passage where, through the Spirit of God, Isaiah speaks of what God’s Servant will do when he arrives.
As we read down to verse 3 we see what Jesus will do for his people which is a great releasing from bondage and despair and a bestowing of joy and praise. The result of this is to make them “oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour”. This is what his people, Old and New Testament, Jew and Gentile, are to be and therefore what we must head for in our lives and Christian communities.
Tuesday Isaiah 61:4-11
God’s people are to be builders and repairers, making places for the lost to find a home but the shepherd of the sheep being gathered from all over the world will not mainly be Jews but the formerly despised Gentiles who will be called priests of the Lord and ministers of God (v6). That has of course been true in the establishment of the New Testament Church. However there appears to be a hint of the final inclusion of the Jews in v7 where the Ancient People are spoken of as receiving a double portion (that of the first born) of their inheritance instead of shame and disgrace and becoming inheritors of everlasting joy. In v8 it is said “I the Lord love justice and in my faithfulness I will reward my people”.
The final verses speak of the great joy and rejoicing that will be the destiny of God’s people who will share in a great marriage with the Saviour himself.
Wednesday Isaiah 62:1-12
It is easy to give up in the face of opposition but Isaiah starts this chapter with a declaration that he will not keep silent about the sins of his people. They have ignored the counsel of the prophet of God but he says that he will not remain quiet until her vindication shines out like the dawn. At the moment they have just been a people disobedient to their maker and the time is coming when they will be defeated and exiled to a far-away land – Babylon – where they will bewail their predicament. But Isaiah has prophetic words of future blessing, not because of their behaviour but because of the grace of God who will not let them go although he will discipline them. He speaks of a time when they will be a crown of splendour and the Lord will take delight in them. The advent message comes, “Say to daughter Zion, See, your Saviour comes! See his reward is with him” (v11). The persistence of God with his people shines out again and again. Praise his name.
Thursday Isaiah 63:1-6
Here we have a figure returning from Edom and its capital, Bozrah, stained with blood but splendidly robed. It is the Lord coming from the place of the archetypical enemies of Israel (Edom, meaning red, traced its origin in Esau). The Lord is pictured as victorious over all the enemies and he is victorious alone for there was no-one to help (v3). It is the image of Jesus, the Messiah, who in Isaiah’s vision is returning from his victory over all his enemies. It shows the wrath of God which is real and shouldn’t be downplayed. All too often nowadays people flee from the idea that God could be angry or wrathful but in face of his enemies, those who would seek to destroy his creation, the peak of which is his people, created in his image, he will not tolerate.
C S Lewis has the best picture in Narnia. When Lucy hears of Aslan being a lion she asks, “Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion,” Mr. Beaver responds, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you!”.
Friday Isaiah 63:7-10
The narrative then moves to the kindness of the Lord which his people recount because he has done any good things for them (v7). God not only chose them and called them as his people but he also shared with them in their distress – we have only to think of their captivity in Egypt – from which he saved them.
Yet as v10 tells us they “rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit” and that led to him becoming their enemy and fighting against them. Once again we see the subject of the wrath of God appearing and being directed against the very people who had experienced kindness from him. We must never turn God into a ‘sugar daddy’ who is always there for us in a kindly way to spoil us in all our desires. He is a holy God who will not put up with rebellion.
Saturday Isaiah 63:11-19
Verse 11 tells of the people recalling the days of old when Moses led the people out and when God set his Holy Spirit among them. Nostalgia comes as a mixed emotion, it can be a memory that is sadly stationery in the feelings or it can spur one on to change and renew. The people of Israel sometimes thought back to God’s gracious dealings with them and led them to repentance and change however at other times the remembrance was short lived and all too soon disappeared when circumstances changed.
From v16 we see a prayer to God to remember them as his children and the plea is why he causes them to wander from his ways, making them harden their hearts and go through their failures all again. The prayer is that God doesn’t keep them on the right path all the time and we may feel the same about our own lives and situations. The only recourse in those situations is prayer that accepts the sovereignty of God but pleads with him as the prophet does here. At times the cry of Jesus on the cross must echo in our hearts too, “Why have you forsaken me?” But in the darkness, Light shines.