Bible Reading & Commentary for the Week December 13 – December 18, 2021

LynnBible Reading Guide

Monday, December 13, Psalm 38

  1. 3-4 – This is one of David’s psalms of repentance. Sin is a terrible thing. It can make a person physically and emotionally unhappy and depressed.  What is the treatment for sin?  It’s admitting our sins, as David did (v. 18).  It’s finding balm and healing as David did, in Jesus (v. 22) and especially in Psalms 23 and 103:2, 3, 11, 12)

 

Tuesday, December 14, Psalm 39

  1. 4 – As David was concerned, we should also be concerned about our length of life. Why is that? That’s so we use our time wisely.  It’s over before you know it (v. 5).  In that short time allotted us, we want to live in daily repentance (vv. 7-8), sorry for our sins and putting our hope and trust in Jesus, our Savior.  Then we can live confidently and courageously because we know heaven is our home.
  2. 5-6 – In case we get too big for our britches, God reminds us, through the words of David, “Every man at his best state is but vapor or a breath, like a shadow or phantom.” Let’s, therefore, humble ourselves before God and remember that we are aliens, strangers here (v. 12). Our real home is in heaven.  Read I Peter 1:3,4 and Hymn 417 in Christian Worship.

 

Wednesday, December 15, Psalm 40

  1. 6-8 – These words are Messianic. They are also quoted in Heb. 10:5-7. The writer of Hebrews uses “a body you prepared for me” instead of “my ears you have pierced” (v. 6).  Both translations are acceptable. The body referred to is that of Jesus.  The Jews were to look to Jesus in the scrolls, the Old Testament Scriptures.  There Christ was revealed to them as their Savior from sin who would someday restore to them Paradise.  (Read also Isaiah 53.)
  2. 17 – When David speaks of himself as poor and needy, he’s looking at his spiritual life (v. 12). Where did David find his help, strength and hope? Look at vv. 1-2.  Who is that Rock?  In Ps. 95:1, Matt. 16:15, 16 and 18, and I Peter 2:4-6 Scripture tells us that it is Jesus.  He’s answered all of our spiritual needs through His perfect atonement for us on Calvary’s cross.

 

Thursday, December 16, Psalm 41

  1. 3 – If we take v. 3 in connection with v. 4, the illness David is referring to is a spiritual illness. Trusting in Jesus, David and we are completely restored to spiritual health. The Word of God, which gives us that comfort, we find in passages such as these: I John 1:7; Matthew 11:28 and John 14:6.
  2. 9 – Jesus applied this verse to Himself in John 13:18. Judas was the one who lifted up his heel against Jesus.

 

Friday, December 17, Psalm 42

  1. 1 – As the deer, which has been pursued or has been cut off from water, thirsts for water, so the writer of Psalm 42, cut off from Jerusalem, the center of worship, thirsted for God’s Word. Where our house of worship is so close by, it’s difficult to appreciate what Jewish Christians went through, especially those who lived many miles away from the temple and sometimes were cut off from it by captivity.

 

Saturday, December 18, Psalm 43

  1. 5 – Notice these words are also in Ps. 42:5, 11. Psalm 43 was written under the same circumstances as Ps. 42. We also at times experience difficulties that make us downcast.  As the Psalmist did, we, too, need to put our trust in God.  As St. Paul wrote, God in His time will always make all things work out for our good. (Rom. 8:28)