The Jesus Bible Reading PlanSample

LOVE DEMONSTRATED

In the midst of decrying Judah’s sin, the prophet Jeremiah made this observation: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jer 17:9). The opening section of Psalm 36 helps readers further understand this universal condition with a blunt description of the wickedness that resides in the hearts of unbelievers and the subsequent sin that results from rejecting their Creator. Left to themselves, people gravitate away from the Lord and toward an arrogant and destructive sense of ambivalence toward spiritual truth, which leads to self-deceit, evil and, ultimately, the willful rejection of all that is good (vv. 1 – 4).

Contrast this desperate state with the righteousness, purity and faithfulness of God. Struggling to describe divine justice and mercy adequately, the psalmist pointed to the vastness of the heavens, the height of the mountains and the depths of the sea as mere hints of the overwhelming goodness and love of the Almighty (vv. 5 – 7). In light of his grasp of God’s holiness and its vast difference from humanity’s fallen condition, the psalmist made an impassioned plea to the Lord to “continue your love to those who know you” (v. 10). Jesus, who is the very image of God (2Co 4:4; Col 1:15), definitively answered the psalmist’s request on behalf of all people by giving his life as a “ransom for many” (Mt 20:28) so that all who believe “might live through him” (1Jn 4:9).

Jesus, my heart was beyond cure, and yet you cured it. Protect me from ambivalence toward your truth, and give me the zeal to lead other broken hearts to you. Amen.