Song 1:1-4:16, 2 Corinthians 8:16-24, Psalms 50:1-23, Proverbs
22:22-23
Today is the 6th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy to be here at the threshold again and throw open the door and step into a shiny, sparkly, new week together. This will be the first full week of the month of September and can’t think of a better thing to do than to begin this week by immersing ourselves in the Scriptures. And, so, we finished the book of Ecclesiastes yesterday. So, we greet this new week we’ll be moving into some new territory. And we’ve been moving through the wisdom literature that is contained in the Bible, that being a part of Psalms, the Proverbs, Job Ecclesiastes. And we’re remaining in wisdom literature as we come into this new book, but it’s a very different perspective, a very…coming from a very different place.
Introduction to the Song of Songs / the Song of Solomon:
This is the book known as the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon. And it’s some of the most beautiful poetry in the…in the world and these love poems are of the consummation of love and bliss and joy between a man and a woman who have committed their lives and are just basically drunk with love for one another. But this is poetry and its wisdom literature. And, so, there are many layers that…that can be looked at. There are many ways to look at what we’re about to read together. Certainly, the passionate consummation of love between a man and woman who…who are just deeply lost in love is the pretext. So, it stands alone on its own as a witness to…to marital love and the bliss that happens in a passionate physical relationship. But there are other ways to read this - a mystical reading, like what are the deeper layers here? What do the allegories mean? And, so, like ancient Jewish tradition looks at the…the poem from the perspective that it reveals God’s passionate love for His children, the Hebrew people, which is…which is completely supportable in the Scriptures in the old and new Testaments. And then in our Christian tradition we have an allegorical look at the passionate, deep, abiding, like lost in love passion of Christ for His church and His deep desire for His people. And this is one of the cases where all of those can be right all at the same time. It’s a short book. We’ll read it today and tomorrow. And, so, you can read it number of times. You can read it from a number of perspectives on your own just inviting God to take you deeper and deeper into it and see what kind of lens the Holy Spirit leads you to. And, so, that’s what can happen here as we move through this. Invite God into how you hear it, how you receive it. Since it’s love poetry between a man…a man and a woman we have a tradition here at the Daily Audio Bible, my wife Jill comes to join me for these couple of days and I can read the male part and she can read the female part and that takes us into the…into the poetry in a meaningful way. And, so, I welcome my wife Jill along for this ride and we got a brand-new week so we’re gonna read from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Song of songs chapters 1 through 4.
Prayer:
Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us into this new, shiny, sparkly week that is out in front of us reminding us that we will live into it one way or the other. There is only one way to go and that is forward. And, so, we will be swept forward into this week, but we will either be swept into the torrent of the chaos that can swirl all around us or we will methodically walk hand-in-hand step-by-step with the lover of our souls that we are reading about as we read through the song of Solomon. And we thank You for the gift of love. We thank You for the gift of companionship, we thank You for our spouses, we thank You for the intimacy that we share together, we thank You for the intimacy that You long for with us, that You are within us, which is as intimate as it can be. And, so, we acknowledge that. We settle into that. You want to be with us. We want to be with You. And, so, we give ourselves to You with abandon as we walk into this new week. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning Daily Audio Bible community this is Diane Olive Brown from Newburgh Indiana shalom shalom it’s 6:44 in the morning central time on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 and I just listened to Brian’s commentary and this song came to me from a movie. Maybe you guys know it. And it goes…and so I’m gonna sing it. [singing starts] Words, words, words I’m so sick of words I hear words all day through from him now from you is that all you blighters can do? [singing stops] My point is I have repented. All my life, that’s the way I’ve been - I talk I talk and I talk and I never stop and I never stop and I used to just say everything that blurted out of my mouth. Well, I put my hands in front of my mouth now and I say forgive me Father for I have sinned against You. Instead of listening I thought I was speaking for You, but I wasn’t. I was blustering. I was full of pride and I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Holy Spirit, will You please teach me to have a gentle and a quiet spirit? I love You. My log is on the campfire…
Good morning daily audio Bible family it’s September 1st this is Angel in Maryland. I’m calling family for your prayers for my sister who lives in Louisiana. She…my family was affected by the hurricane in Louisiana and that was last Thursday, August 27th and that day she text me saying that she tested positive for Covid and it’s really hard when you’re going through a natural disaster, you don’t have comforts of life and she’s fighting for her life right now. She has…she is married she has two boys age five and age one and I would ask that you just keep her lifted. She’s…she’s been a fairly healthy person, eats very well, exercises but Covid has a way of being unpredictable. So, I ask that you just pray for my sister in Louisiana, that she will be healed. I do believe God is a healer. Thank you.
Father God, this is Donna in Pennsylvania. I just listened to a woman calling from her parking lot, she’s a nurse and is just dreading going to work and facing a second wave of Covid patients. She just can’t do it again. Her son is bipolar at home pacing and talking to himself for hours and she can’t help him. Lord, I had a stressful, busy, long day yesterday. I’ve got a…more of one today and not enough sleep last night. And I ask that You would lift us up, help us Lord, moment by moment to trust You because You promise to be there never to fail or forsake us. I ask Lord that You would help us commit this day to YAou, that Your will be done and that You will strengthen us, that we would be able to delight in You today Lord, that nothing could steal our joy in You, no circumstances and that we would remember to wait on You because we were never meant to carry these burdens along. You promised to be with us. Through the fire we will not be burned, through the water we will not be overwhelmed. You are with us moment by moment. Day by day I asked that You would hold us up, lift up this woman and help her and her son, all of those who are nurses and doctors, those facing possible eviction, those who are sick, those who are struggling, hungry and hopeless. O God help us. In Jesus’ name I trust, I wait, I commit, and delight in You today…
Hi DAB family it’s James here from the UK, been a very long time since I last called but I just ask for your prayers over my family. We’ve moved home and it’s been done during the lockdown period. Obviously, a very stressful for a lot of people but we’ve been truly blessed. I have found a new job, my wife also. But we’re struggling and we’re struggling because we are feeling a lack of…of place. We feel that the reason that God’s brought us here is very clear because of the health of my father, which is worsening. And many of you prayed sometime back because he had a…a really catastrophic stroke and he’s still hanging in there, but he needs more help. And, so, we’re back. We are near to mom and dad now which is really great. And God’s blessed us with a house that literally at the moment we’re renting a couple doors down from them. So, we are so thankful, but my wife is struggling. And she’s struggling with the fact that she feels really torn away from her friends, her family, her community. And we just ask for your prayers. I ask for your prayers in particular in her life, that she might find a way to make inroads with a relationship with my mom and find peace. Thank you, family.
Hello DAB this is Tim from Edinburgh in Scotland UK I’ve got a prayer support, praise report, and prayer request. My prayer support is my prayer in intercession for Michael. Michael your call was broadcast on Thursday and you were heading in for eye surgery and I pray for your continued healing, bodily and in soul and in spirit. Thursday was also the day that I started developing systems in my eye, like a curtain being drawn across. On Saturday the Scripture reading included 2 Corinthians 3:16 in DAB which was, “but whenever anyone turns to the Lord the veil is taken away.” On Saturday I was diagnosed with the detached retina. On Monday emergency surgery was carried out and Monday was also the day that Laura and an unnamed chap, their calls were broadcast again in intercession for Michael. My praise report is…is basically that I just carried along on the coattails of Michael and claimed a share in those prayers. Thank you, guys. The surgery seems to have gone very smoothly and I’m just in recovery phase now. And, so, my prayer request for the whole of DAB family is to pray for everyone and to pray for everyone that anyone specific for whom we pray, we can all share with that. And I know that this will resonate with Brian, that I pray with all those with eyesight issues, conditions, problems and I give all glory and praise and thanks to Jesus who kept me say throughout my procedure, stood there in the gap with me. I give thanks to Jesus and thanks to this wonderful community and this family. Thank you. Amen.
Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to pray for Michael who had lost his father and mother and going through a divorce and all of the challenges that he’s going through, that God would give him the victory. I also want to pray for Margo in Nigeria who’s stuck at the airport and trying to get back to Canada. I’m asking God bless her with a victory. I also want to pray for my…my sister I think her name is Abigail about the young…two young boys she’s in the hospital with a stroke and her mom dying of cancer. And I want to pray for those who have lost a loved one or anybody to coronavirus. I just want to give one victory. My son had been tested positive, but we went through the incubation period and God blessed us that we made it through. And just praying that God gives us the release…that we released as a nation from this and that we can continue to live as God wants us to in the freedom and that backed with a victory in being able to do the things that He wants us to do. Gracious Father I lift You up I praise Your name I ask You Lord to have Your way in the lives of the DABbers. Lord the sister even…even with that’s taking the test today Lord we pray that You give her the victory. We just pray that You touch those in the hospital. You touch those that lost their loved ones, the name that I could remember and the ones that I didn’t and let them know that I love them and that I’m…that…that…that they’re included in this prayer because __ You that none would perish. He wants You to have the victory and because You are a DABber You’re a DABber. And I want to let You know that God loves You. And the one who was praying for the one on her job and her husband’s a coal worker. Lord we just ask You to have Your way, Lord You heal and deliver…