The Daily Readings
FRIDAY, October 23, 2020
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17; Deuteronomy 32:1-14, 18; Titus 2:7-8, 11-15
The Holy Bible, King James Version (KJV)
Today’s Verse-of-the-Day:
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.No maturing Christian can ever say, “I don’t need the church,” because Jesus tells us that we all have work to do in the church—we must fulfill our role as part of the body. We cannot carry the burdens of those we never interact with. Therefore, we must continue to participate in the work, fellowship, and worship of the church—freely giving of ourselves just as Christ has given Himself to us (NASB Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible Notes).
Today’s Readings:
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
Show your servants your works
1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.Commentary
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
13 Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
It is supposed that this psalm refers to the sentence passed on Israel in the wilderness, Numbers 14. God's favor and protection are the only sure rest and comfort of the soul in this evil world. Christ Jesus is the refuge and dwelling-place to which we may repair. We are dying creatures. All our comforts in the world are dying comforts, but God is an ever-living God, and believers find him so. When God, by sickness, or other afflictions, turns men to destruction, he thereby calls men to return unto him to repent of their sins and live a new life. A thousand years are nothing to God's eternity: between a minute and a million years, there is some proportion; between time and eternity, there is none. All the events of a thousand years, whether past or to come, are more present to the Eternal Mind than what was done in the last hour is to us. And in the resurrection, the body and soul shall both return and be united again. Time passes unobserved by us, as with men asleep, and when it is past, it is as nothing. It is a short and quickly-passing life, as the waters of a flood. Man flourish as the grass, which will wither when the winter of old age comes, but he may be mown down by disease or disaster.
Those who would learn true wisdom must pray for Divine instruction, must beg to be taught by the Holy Spirit, and for comfort and joy in the returns of God's favor. They pray for the mercy of God, for they pretend not to plead any merit of their own. His favor would be a full fountain of future joys. It would be a sufficient balance to former griefs. Let the grace of God in us produce the light of good works. And let Divine consolations put gladness into our hearts and a luster upon our countenances. The work of our hands, establish thou it, and, to that, establish us in it. Instead of wasting our precious, fleeting days pursuing fancies, which leave the possessors for ever poor, let us seek the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance in heaven. Let us pray that the work of the Holy Spirit may appear in converting our hearts and that the beauty of holiness may be seen in our conduct.
Deuteronomy 32:1-14, 18
The song of Moses
32:1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.Commentary
2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
3 Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
8 When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
12 So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
Moses begins with a solemn appeal to heaven and earth, concerning the truth and importance of what he was about to say. His doctrine is the gospel, the speech of God, the doctrine of Christ—the doctrine of grace and mercy through him, and of life and salvation by him.
“He is a Rock.” This is the first time God is called so in Scripture. The expression denotes that the Divine power, faithfulness, and love, as revealed in Christ and the gospel, form a foundation that cannot be changed or moved, on which we may build our hopes of happiness. And under his protection, we may find refuge from all our enemies, and in all our troubles, as the rocks in those countries sheltered from the burning rays of the sun, and from tempests, or were fortresses from the enemy. “His work is perfect:” that of redemption and salvation, in which there is a display of all the Divine perfection, complete in all its parts. All God’s dealings with his creatures are regulated by wisdom, which cannot err and perfect justice. He is indeed just and right; he takes care that none shall lose by him. A high charge is exhibited against Israel. Even God’s children have their spots while in this imperfect state; for if we say we have no sin, no spot, we deceive ourselves. But Israel’s sin was not habitual, notorious, unrepented sin, which is a certain mark of Satan’s children. They were fools to forsake their mercies for lying vanities. All wilful sinners, especially sinners in Israel, are unwise and ungrateful.
Moses gives particular instances of God’s kindness and concern for them. The eagle’s care for her young is a beautiful emblem of Christ’s love, who came between Divine justice and our guilty souls and bared our sins in His own body on the tree. And by the preached gospel and the influences of the Holy Spirit, He stirs up and prevails upon sinners to leave Satan’s bondage. In Deuteronomy 32:13, Deuteronomy 32:14 are emblems of the conquest believers have over their spiritual enemies, sin, Satan, and the world, in and through Christ. Also of their safety and triumph in him; of their happy frames of soul, when they are above the world and its things. This will be the blessed case of spiritual Israel in every sense in the latter day.
Here are two instances of the wickedness of Israel. Each was apostasy from God. These people were called Jeshurun, “an upright people,” so some; “a seeing people,” so others: but they soon lost the reputation both of their knowledge and their righteousness. They indulged their appetites as if they had nothing to do but to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it. Those who make a god of themselves, and a god of their bellies, in pride and wantonness, cannot bear to be told of it, thereby forsake God and showing they esteem him lightly. There is but one way of a sinner’s acceptance and sanctification. However, different modes of irreligion, or false religion, may show favorable regard for other ways, often miscalled candid. How mad are idolaters, who forsake the Rock of salvation, to run themselves upon the rock of perdition!
2:7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,Commentary
8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
Old disciples of Christ must behave in every thing agreeably to the Christian doctrine. That the aged men be sober; not thinking that the decays of nature will justify any excess; but seeking comfort from nearer communion with God, not from any undue indulgence. Faith works by and must be seen in love, of God for himself, and of men for God's sake. Aged persons are apt to be peevish and fretful; therefore need to be on their guard. Though there is no express Scripture for every word or look, there are general rules, according to which all must be ordered. Young women must be sober and discreet, for many expose themselves to fatal temptations by what at first might only want of discretion. The reason is added that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Failures in duties greatly reproach Christianity. Young men are apt to be eager and thoughtless. Therefore they must be earnestly called upon to be sober-minded: more young people are ruined by pride than by any other sin. Every godly man's endeavor must be to stop the mouths of adversaries. Let thine own conscience answer for thine uprightness. What a glory is it for a Christian, when that mouth which would fain open itself against him, cannot find any evil in him to speak of!
Servants must know and do their duty to their earthly masters, with reference to their heavenly one. In serving an earthly master according to Christ's will, He is served; he shall reward such. Not giving disrespectful or provoking language, but to take a check or reproof with silence, not making confident or bold replies. When conscious of a fault, to excuse or justify it doubles it. Never putting to their own use that which is their master's, nor wasting the goods they are trusted with. Showing all good fidelity to improve a master's goods, and promote his thriving. If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? Luke 16:12. True religion is an honor to the professors of it, and they should adorn it in all things.
The doctrine of grace and salvation by the gospel is for all ranks and conditions of men. It teaches to forsake sin, to have no more to do with it. An earthly, sensual conversation suits, not a heavenly calling. It teaches us to make conscious of that which is good. We must look to God in Christ as the object of our hope and worship. A gospel conversation must be a godly conversation. See our duty in a very few words, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, living soberly, righteously, and godly, notwithstanding all snares, temptations, corrupt examples, ill-usage, and what remains of sin in the believer's heart, with all their hindrances. It teaches us to look for the glories of another world. At, and in, the glorious appearance of Christ, the blessed hope of Christians will be complete: To bring us to holiness and happiness was the end of Christ's death.
Jesus Christ, that great God and our Savior, who saves not only as God, much less as Man alone; but as God-man, two natures in one person. He loved us and gave himself for us, and what can we do less than love and give ourselves up to him! Redemption from sin and sanctification of nature, go together and make a peculiar people unto God, free from guilt and condemnation, and purified by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is profitable. Here is what will furnish for all parts of duty, and the right discharge of them. Let us inquire whether our whole dependence is placed upon that grace, which saves the lost, pardons the guilty, and sanctifies the unclean. And the further we are removed from boasting of fancied good works, or trusting in them so that we glory in Christ alone, the more zealous shall we be to abound in real good works.
The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel lessons are from The Holy Bible, King James Version (KJV).
Commentaries from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible.
The Daily Bible Readings are selected from the Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, a three-year cyclical lectionary. We are currently in Year A. Beginning with the first Sunday of Advent in 2020, we will be in Year B. The year which ended at Advent 2019 was Year C. These readings complement the Sunday and festival readings: Thursday through Saturday readings help prepare the reader for the Sunday ahead; Monday through Wednesday readings help the reader reflect and digest what they heard in worship. Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts. www.commontexts.org
The Daily Readings for FRIDAY, October 23, 2020
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17; Deuteronomy 32:1-14, 18; Titus 2:7-8, 11-15 (KJV)
