Contemplative Bible Reading

Psalms 55:10-11 (New Living Translation)

¹⁰ Its walls are patrolled day and night against invaders,
but the real danger is wickedness within the city.
¹¹ Everything is falling apart;
threats and cheating are rampant in the streets.

Sometimes we need look no further for our problems than ourselves. Such is the case related by David in this Psalm.

Soldiers are patrolling the city walls day and night watching for an approaching enemy. The enemy, however, is inside the city. The city is crumbling because threats and cheating are rampant in the streets.

Let’s back up a moment: threats and cheating? Shouldn’t a city be threatened by real threatening things like poisoned water supply, nuclear waste, collapsing financial markets, rampant hyperinflation…You know, really serious threats?

But threats and cheating? Come on. So what if people drive five miles faster than the speed limit or inflate their claim of gifts on their income tax. And what’s the big deal if drivers mutter threats to other drivers who can’t hear them in their cars? Those little things never hurt anyone, right?

Maybe they are bigger than we like to think.

Psalms 106:19-20 (New Living Translation)

¹⁹ The people made a calf at Mount Sinai;
they bowed before an image made of gold.
²⁰ They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull.

I guess we file this one under:

How stupid can people be?

These verses are about the people that Moses led out of slavery in Egypt. They departed Egypt after a string of miraculous signs. What did they do in less than a month?

They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull.

What? Yes, they literally traded God for the statue of a cow – something that depends on grass for life. No grass, no cow.

They were worshiping the almighty power of grass.

I guess now I should list some examples of similarly stupid things that we do today. Let’s see, we worship the:

• hands on a clock
• markings on a calendar
• scrawling in a checkbook
• fabric draped over our (usually overweight) bodies

We could continue with the list, but what is the use? What other stupid things do we worship these days?

Psalms 49:16-20 (New Living Translation)

So don’t be dismayed when the wicked grow rich
and their homes become ever more splendid.
¹⁷ For when they die, they take nothing with them.
Their wealth will not follow them into the grave.
¹⁸ In this life they consider themselves fortunate
and are applauded for their success.
¹⁹ But they will die like all before them
and never again see the light of day.
²⁰ People who boast of their wealth don’t understand;
they will die, just like animals.

The title to this post is an old saying. “Rover” is the stereotypical name of a dog. The saying is often uttered by those who don’t believe that God, heaven, hell, etc. exist. When you are dead, you are dead just like a dog – that is the end.

Here in the 49th Psalm I find what might be the source of the old saying. Note the last phrase of the last verse:

they will die, just like animals

This phrase, however,  is not about the existence of God. It is about the futility of those who trust in their earthly riches. Those riches won’t matter as death will come to those people just as it comes to a bird or mouse or snail or whatever. It comes.

To the Christian, however, death is a passage to another place. A place with God in eternity.

Proverbs 17:13 (New Living Translation)

If you repay good with evil,
evil will never leave your house.

I read this verse as:

You can’t give away all the evil.

There will always be some left over.

I could be wrong on this one, but that is my take. Evil seems to be that way. It is like hatred. There seems to be a limitless supply of hatred here and there. If you think you can hate so much that all your hate is depleted, you are wrong. You will have more hate to use.

Evil is the same way. “I’ll be evil a lot this week so that I won’t have any evil to use next week.” Wrong. There will be plenty to use next week and the week after.

Remedy? Good. Yes, just use some good, some joy, some love, some good-natured giving. I think there is a limitless supply of that as well. The LORD will provide.

Proverbs 17:1 (New Living Translation)

Better a dry crust eaten in peace
than a house filled with feasting—and conflict.

This tells us a simple principle about priorities.

1. Take care of the physical necessities.
2. Then take care of the emotional needs.

The key word in the first principle is “necessities.” Enough bread to survive is a necessity. There are better, more enjoyable foods to eat, but a necessity is all that is required.

Once the requirements for life are met, move to the emotional needs. No one needs to be around argumentative people. We aren’t considering arguments that exercise the mind. We are considering arguments that bring unnecessary conflict and distress into life.

Psalms 39:4 (New Living Translation)

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered—
how fleeting my life is.

I don’t understand this request of David. He wants God to remind him how short his life is.

Why does David want to be reminded of this?

I suppose there is something here to do with staying humble. David wants to remain humble. Perhaps I should be praying this prayer more often.

2 Kings 5:1-6 (New Living Translation)

The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.

² At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. ³ One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”

⁴ So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. ⁵ “Go and visit the prophet,” the king of Aram told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out, carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. ⁶ The letter to the king of Israel said: “With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”

I love this (hi)story of Naaman. I must, since I have written about it several times.

This post is about how the king of Aram and his army commander-in-chief, Naaman, believed in the LORD and in the prophets of the LORD. Notice how these two men of power acted on information they had (see verses 4-5). These powerful men were trusting in the power of the LORD and also in the existence of prophets – people who had intimate contact with the LORD.

This strikes me as remarkable for two reasons:

(1) These men are not Hebrews, not part of God’s chosen people.

(2) These men conquered the Hebrews. They raided as often as they wanted and took captives as slaves. Why would you go to the god of someone you conquered?

This is a lot of faith and is something to be emulated.

Psalms 39:1 (New Living Translation)

I said to myself, “I will watch what I do
and not sin in what I say.
I will hold my tongue
when the ungodly are around me.”

1. Does it matter what we say?
2. Does it matter what we say when we are around Christians?
3. Does it matter what we say when we are around non-Christians?

I answer “yes” to all three questions. Now let’s pick at questions 2 and 3. Which situation is more important? I don’t have an answer and I won’t spend much of my life deliberating on it.

David here seems to think that question 3 is pretty important. He will hold his tongue in that situation. I can’t argue with his intent.

2 Kings 5:1-6 (New Living Translation)

The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.

² At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. ³ One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”

⁴ So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. ⁵ “Go and visit the prophet,” the king of Aram told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out, carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. ⁶ The letter to the king of Israel said: “With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”

Notice two little phrases here:

The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories

Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid

Hmm, the LORD had given the Arameans victories over Israel. Okay, that had happened many times as the LORD had used foreign armies to punish Israel (and Judah). Note, however, that the Arameans had taken Israelites prisoner and brought them home to be slaves. Such was the young girl in Naaman’s household.

Slavery? The LORD had allowed His people to be taken as slaves?

Yes. And the LORD used the little slave girl to proclaim His glory in Aram.

The LORD moves in mysterious ways. I know, an over used cliche, but it seems to be true often.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (New Living Translation)

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

The writer of Ecclesiastes notes things that puzzle man, puzzle man all his life and never make sense. Here is one:

God lets man consider eternity.

That is nice of God, a true blessing. The other side of it is that we don’t understand eternity as God does. We can’t fathom limitless time stretching in both directions – the past and the future.

God is superior to us in many ways. This is just one of them. God understands eternity. In some ways, God is eternity. Man? We’re just here a little while, so we try to trust God, believe in God, live in the wonderful ways that God encourages us to live.