It’s easy to blame God when circumstances turn bad. Not bad like a lousy day, but bad when life falls apart. King David found himself in such a situation when his son, Absalom, launched a coup to take the kingdom for himself.

David wrote in his anguish: I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!” They conspire against me and plot to take my life. For the first time in his life David found himself an object of contempt and in a place of extreme vulnerability.

So David opened up to the Lord, writing: Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God (quoted by Jesus on the cross, during his own time of vulnerability). Given up for dead, cast out like a broken pot, David turned to his only source of solace.

David wrote of those who fear the Lord, and how he felt turning to God during this precarious time: In the shelter of your presence you hide them from all human intrigues; you keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues.

The Lord heard David’s cries for mercy and overturned the plans of Absalom and his cohort. David finished his psalm with praise and an encouragement for all who follow the Lord:

Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

Persevere in the midst of anguish. Cling to the Lord. Return when you’ve strayed, as David did over and over—you’ll be welcomed back. Take heart and stand strong. Good from God is still to come.

Psalm 31 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Karsten Winegeart

Certain verses in the Bible are comforting and others troubling. Here’s one of the more startling:

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

I immediately turn to myself and think—everything? Every thought, attitude, muttering under my breath now bare as a desert before the Lord? That’s super uncomfortable. Then the follow-up gets worse—I must account for the mess God views? Try to explain it all? Not much chance of that.

This points to our need for God’s word to carve deep fissures in our hearts, to create God-honoring thoughts and attitudes. The verse prior reads:

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

It’s best to let the words of God judge our ways of thinking and treating others, and then guide us toward better practices. Ignoring all that and dealing with a righteous and holy God down the road, well, no one wants that confrontation.

Immediately following we read of Jesus, who cleared a path to move toward the Lord, even with our lousy, embarrassing lives. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

No where to run and no where to hide? That’s our situation. But with the words of God forming my mind, and the sacrifice of Jesus covering my soul, I can actually approach the Lord with confidence.

Meaning there’s no more need to run, and no more need to hide.

Hebrews 4 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by JC Gellidon

It’s comforting to engage with trustworthy. Perhaps it’s a restaurant that never disappoints, or an author you always appreciate. Maybe it’s a vehicle you can count on to always start in the cold, or a friend who’s got your back.

In our ever-shifting world, trustworthy grows harder to find and ever more valuable. One source remains worthy of our trust—the words of the Lord. The psalmist writes, all his precepts are trustworthy. They are established for ever and ever, enacted in faithfulness and uprightness.

The teachings of the Bible never go out of style. They may go out of favor, viewed by segments of the population as archaic or rigid or even harmful. But the words of Scripture remain the one true path to human flourishing. Solid. Sure. Bedrock.

Which leads the psalmist to the following reality: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, all who follow his precepts have good understanding.

Want to live above your circumstances? Find solid footing in the ever-shifting sands of this world? Open the book. Give time and thought to the words of the Lord, where just around the corner, wisdom and understanding wait for you.

Psalm 111 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Simon Berger

My wife and I have closets and drawers that stockpile garments we don’t wear and stuff we don’t use anymore. Once a year or so we sort through this opulence and pull things out to give away. Why not pass along our no longer loved clothes to someone who might enjoy them?

From the very beginning of Israel the Lord commanded his people to give thought to the poor, and leave them a way to survive:

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord you God.

Before church networks and government agencies, the Lord set a plan in place for the less fortunate. Sharing took precedence over hoarding. We help the poor and the immigrant today, based on this philosophy of caring set in place thousands of years ago among a wandering people.

The poor we will always have among us, and we should not forget to help them. If gleaning from my closet is a tiny step in that direction, then it’s worth giving away that cozy sweater ignored on my shelf.

Leviticus 23 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Annie Spratt