Read To Me Daily Semester 2Sample

2SAMUEL 2:
In the first chapter of 2nd Samuel, David heard of Israel’s terrible defeat and of Saul and Jonathan's deaths, and he exacted the death sentence from the lying messenger. David and his men mourned for the deaths of  Saul and Jonathan, and David composed a funeral song for them.

PSALM 107b:
Today we read the second half of Psalm 107. Yesterday I commented briefly on how quickly our culture forgets about God. After a natural disaster, it becomes popular in the media to talk about praying for the victims. But God is not even mentioned, and soon any pretense of awe or fear of God is dropped. But Psalm 107 speaks of people who see God’s hand at work and make lasting changes. The poem ends with this summary: 

NLT The godly will see these things and be glad,
while the wicked are struck silent.
43 Those who are wise will take all this to heart;
they will see in our history the faithful love of the LORD.

ROMANS 11b:
Paul comes to the end of his long parenthesis at the end of this chapter. He ends with a conclusion just before a doxology:

NLT 33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

34 For who can know the LORD’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?
35 And who has given him so much
that he needs to pay it back?

Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, You are right in your judgments! In your unfathomable wisdom, You determined to save mankind by means of the costly sacrifice of your Son. This means, dear Father, that You will not allow other ways to be saved. To do so would negate the value of Christ’s death for us. Jesus would not have needed to die for us if we all could find other ways to be accepted into heaven. Now Paul talks of your kindness and your severity. Lord, people of our age are happy to think of your kindness, and completely reject the idea of your severity. So many people think we just can choose to live by any old spirituality. In our age of relativism, we pray that You would help us powerfully share the real truth. Lord, we thank You that You have included us in your special olive tree. We thank You for your constant love and the wonderful things You have done for us. You satisfy those who are spiritually hungry and thirsty, You smash all the bars of our spiritual prisons and give us such freedom, and with joy, we will sing in worship and tell all that You have done.