May 25-31

​Heart Preparation:
As you get into the habit of reading God’s Word daily, it can easily build into just something that you do. It can slip into routine, or obligation even. Take a moment and pray each morning before you read that you would enter into the presence of God, not out of routine or obligation, but out of desire to be in His presence. The Creator of the universe, who holds the universe in the span of His hand, wants to be with you. 


Week’s Reading Plan:

• Sunday,     May 25 – 1 Chronicles 23-25
• Monday,     May 26 – Psalm 131, 138-139, 143-145
• Tuesday, May 27 – 1 Chronicles 26-29, Psalm 127
• Wednesday, May 28 – Psalm 111-118
• Thursday, May 29 – 1 Kings 1-2, Psalm 37, 71, 94
• Friday, May 30 – Psalm 119:1-88
• Saturday, May 31 – 1 Kings 3-4, 2 Chronicles 1, Psalm 72

What to Expect:
When we left off last week, David had passed the responsibility of building the Temple to his son, and future king, Solomon. Even though David wasn’t allowed to personally build the Temple, he provided everything that Solomon was going to need to build the Temple. David is now old, and he has passed responsibilities for leading the nation off to Solomon, but David isn’t done leading. Now, instead of being a political leader, he is a religious leader, organizing the Levites, who were called to be the priests and judges for the nation of Israel. He also establishes a system for the Temple worship to continue on, by organizing the priests, musicians, gatekeepers, treasurers, and other officials. David gives his final charge to Israel, as well as to his son Solomon, before passing away. As we enter 2 Chronicles/1 Kings, Solomon’s reign begins on the right foot, as he seeks out God for wisdom from the Lord, and receives wisdom, riches, and power as a response to his humble request.


Things to Look For:
Multiple times now through the book of Chronicles, we have encountered lists of name. Names that we don’t know, and titles that we are unfamiliar with. But what you can see through these passages is the desire of David to establish a lasting religious system, where the people of Israel are faithful to God. That’s David’s final words to Solomon, to know the God of [his] father and serve Him with a whole heart and with a willing mind.


Personal Insight: 
Think of the most powerful person in the world. Maybe you’re thinking of a world leader, like the president of a country. Maybe you think of the most influential person in the world, someone who has great sway over the hearts and minds of people, someone like the pope or a religious leader. It could even be the richest people in the world, those who are able to sway politics by their checkbook. If you were to ask this question during the 10th century BC, David would have been that person. Military conquests, the heart of his people, a covenant with God, fame, power, fortune, he had it all. Yet, what stood out to me a lot during this weeks reading was a passage in 1 Chronicles 29, when David calls for the assembly. He prays to God and makes a statement, Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank You, our God, and praise Your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from You, and of Your own have we given You (1 Chronicles 29:11-14). 


Look at the humility of David in this passage. In 2 Samuel 24, David angers the Lord by what appears to be pride in his military might (taking a census of all the men who wield the sword). Yet here, David realizes that it is only because of God, and everything (the victory, the offering, the gifting, the power) comes from God. Those people that you might’ve thought about before, they are nothing compared to the greatness of God. In Revelation 6, we are told that those people, the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling on the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17). 


Try contacting any of those people that you think of, you will get no response. They don’t have the time of day for you. But, the God who is infinitely greater than they are, knows you by name. He loves you. He cares for you. He has all the time in the world for you, but the question is, do you have time for Him? Are you making time to enter into His presence? Are you setting your mind to know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and with a willing mind… If you seek Him, He will be found by you (1 Chronicles 28:9). 


Psalm 8:1-9
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have crowned him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!


Psalm 139:17-18
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. 


Prayer:
This is a prayer by A.W. Tozier from his book, The Pursuit of God


O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this.


This weeks devotion was prepared by Andrew Peterman