2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21, Romans 11:13-36, Psalm 22:1-18, Proverbs 20:7
Today is the 28th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a joy to be around the Global Campfire another day, as we take another step forward on our journey through the Scriptures. Right now, we’re navigating…navigating our way through Second Chronicles in the Old Testament and Paul’s letter to the Romans in the new. And we’ll obviously continue the journey until we reach new territory. But for now, that’s where we are. And so, let’s dive in, today Second Chronicles chapters 21, 22 and 23.
Commentary:
Okay, listen to these words that we read from our reading in the Psalms today, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish. My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Those aren’t particularly comforting words, but I find comfort in them because I’ve had experiences in my life that felt like that and we’re reading it out of the Bible and it’s comforting to know, I’m or we’re not the only one who has felt that way. This Psalm was written by David a King, the king of Israel, even kings have this experience. Words from this Psalm were spoken by Jesus hanging from across. So, if those words resonate in any sort of way, and You’ve had a similar experience, you’re not alone. What that feels like was captured and memorialized in the Bible. So, from the Bible, we’ve, we learn a lot about David and his life. And so, we know he was a musician, very skilled, he was a poet. So, he often turned to music that, as a way to get it out, to express, to release, what’s going on inside. But Psalm 22 is not particularly happy song, it simply captures the raw expression from David of what was happening inside of his, inside of himself in his mind, in his heart. A lot of the time we try to sidestep those things for lots of reasons, we don’t want to be honest and tell the truth about what’s happening inside of us, because we don’t want to seem sacrilegious, or we stuff things down inside and try to cover them over with other things. We’ll turn to comfort food to bring comfort or binge-watching television, just anything that we think will bring comfort and distraction from what’s really happening inside. And let’s just remember, David’s the king, he has no shortage of things to distract him, and he has the best distractions that are available. David turned to music to articulate and name his feelings, what was going on and that’s powerful because when we can name it, when we can say what it is, we can see it because it’s in the light. It’s not this nebulous, just anxiety that’s just in there and when our habit is just distraction, then what’s going on inside just continues to build up and accumulate until…until that there’s so much going on that we can even unravel it anymore. It’s just unnamed anxiety that lives in our guts, twisting us into a ball which just leads us into more confusion, rather than bringing clarity. So, maybe we try what’s being modeled by David. Maybe we write it down right down, write down what’s heavy inside of us right now. Maybe if we play music, we…we do it to music. Name what’s going on for what it is and be as honest as what we read in the Bible from the Psalms. We don’t have to be afraid of honesty. David wasn’t, God isn’t, it’s in the Bible. David says, you brought me out of the womb, you made me trust you, even at my mother’s breast, from birth I was cast on You, from my mother’s womb You have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. That’s pretty raw, that’s pretty honest and that is most certainly a quotation from the Bible. So, if this is a difficult season and feels like it’s gonna get worse before it gets better, be honest about that. Write it down, name it, name what’s happening, say what it feels like, see it for what it is, in the presence of God, bring it before God. What we’re reading, that is so raw from the Psalms today, is spoken to God. Honesty is honesty, and honesty is more true than distraction. Distractions don’t fix things. They kick the can down the road, so that more things can accumulate and the problems worse. So, if we’re feeling overwhelmed, and trust me I know what that feels like. If we’re feeling helpless, I know what that feels like. If we’re feeling hopeless, whatever it is that we are walking through, face it, name it, bring it to God, turn it into worship. That’s what we’re watching the psalmist David do. Worship is certainly a joyous and happy thing, but it is also for the lowest of the low times when we can’t even make a sentence make sense. God will understand that sentence, and we will find God in our honesty, and we may find profound relief in getting it out and giving it to the only one who can help.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You, we thank You that You have invited us into a life that is true. We’ve watched this in the Gospels. We’ve seen it modeled in the life of Jesus, we are invited to be who we were created to be, and at times things get twisted inside of us and we do all kinds of things to not deal with them. And what we’re seeing in the Psalms today is that we can be honest with what’s going on and that, in and of itself, is a comfort that we can be honest about where we are knowing that this is not the end of the story. This is just where we are at the moment and we name it and we confess it and we bring it to you and we ask for your help, knowing that you will help, that you will not leave us or forsake us. And so, come Holy Spirit into the struggles of our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
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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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hi, beautiful family. This is Prisoner of Hope. I am just driving into work and on my commute. I decided to call in for a couple of people. CeCe from North Carolina, you called in to give praise for your husband coming to the Lord after six years. And that is a long time, you said it was a long time, it is long. It is, I’m glad it wasn’t any longer. And I thank You Lord, that You’ve saved her husband, that You’ve called him into an eternal relationship with You, that he would be blessed by You. And I pray for those in our community who don’t have saved spouses, such as myself. And we’ve been praying for many, many years ourselves. And I pray that You would call them as well. Draw them in, enable them to come to know You Lord. Please don’t make us wait any longer, Lord. But would You please call our spouses into a eternal relationship with You. That they would decide to follow Jesus, all the days of their life. Carpam Diem Driver, I am just so blessed by you. You’re always calling in and saying you want to have the Lord help you so that you can bless others and glorify Him. You are already doing that, you are already glorifying God and you are already blessing this community. So, while you can ask that God continues to do that, I mean, He’s already doing it. And I hope you recognize that. I hope you that you realize there’s nothing that you need from Him to glorify Him in the way that you do. But with that said, I still lift you up, Carpam Diem Driver. I’m asking if, Lord Jesus, that You would please deliver him from the obstacles in his life, for things that just keep being thrown at him, Lord. He feels like he is against, up against the world. Lord, we know that You are for us, Your word says if God is for us, who can be against us. He who did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things. We ask for You to do that in Carpam Diem’s life and in our lives. In the precious name of Jesus and powerful name of Jesus. Amen.
Hello, my DAB family. This is Jamie in New Jersey, Standing on the Word of God. I humbly ask you to please pray with me. Dear Father in Heaven, words can never express our deep gratitude but while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We are so undeserving of Your grace and mercy, not just for salvation but for every day. Father, we ask that You soften our hearts to think more of others than we do of ourselves. Help us to put into order our priorities in life. You see every joy and difficulty and You love us through it all. Give us the grace today not to store up things for ourselves, where moth and decay can destroy or thieves break in and steal, but to gather up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroy, or thieves break in and steal. Allow us the grace today to desire a relationship with You above all earthly things. By Your grace, we ask that You help us to be strong and courageous in the face of adversity. Strengthen us Father to uphold all people with the love that You have received, we have received from You. May Your love be our strength and Your peace fill our hearts. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for praying along with me, my brothers and sisters. I love you all dearly. Have a good night.
Hi, Daily Audio Bible family. I hope you’re all having a God blessed day, night, whenever you’re all listening to this. And so, I want to give an update to the situation that I called in to the Daily Audio Bible Family here about. Which I left on June 18th which was Father’s Day. Where I talked about how my mom had sustained a business for almost 20 years but unfortunately passed away from stage 4 brain cancer. And how my cousin had tooken up on the business that my mom had started and how my grandma had passed away recently and then how my cousin had ended up in the hospital and how our family is struggling in finances. And how my dad’s in Kansas and won’t be able to help out much. And so, good thing, my cousins been out of the hospital for a couple weeks now. She got out either ever since July 3rd of July 4th. So, hallelujah to that. But yeah, if ya’ll could please keep praying for our financial situation. We were, thankfully, able to make it through this month by the grace of God. And so, please keep praying for us. And so, thankfully, we’re still going through some trials and tribulations but again, God always gets us through the trials and tribulations. You know this really reminds me of how you know like, Jesus you know, when he slept on the boat you know, in the middle of a storm. And how, you know the disciples were panicking and you know, you know Jesus rebuked the wind. You know, it’s just, you know, God’s gonna help get us through. But yeah, if ya’ll could please pray for us with the financial situation, that God would provide us with the exact finances that we need, to just simply get on by. That would certainly greatly be appreciated. God bless ya’ll. Thank ya’ll so much and please stay encouraged. And please pray for me to stay encouraged as well. God bless ya’ll. Peace.
Today is July 25th, why does that sound special? Oh, it’s Ezekiel’s 11th birthday. Happy Birthday Ezekiel. You are wonderful. I listen to you, even though I’m not a little kid. I’m a grown-up kid. I so love listening to you. You speak so clearly; you have inflection in your voice, and you bring the word of God to all of us. And I thank you for that. And I can’t say Happy Birthday enough. I love you. Happy Birthday Ezekiel. Happy Birthday Zeekee, and byyyyyyyyyyeee. It’s Jersy Jane for Jesus. God bless, God bless everyone in the DAB community.