Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / August 18 - Psalm 78

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August 18 - Psalm 78 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it is Sean here and it is Friday.
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  Happy Friday to you. Welcome to the end of the week.
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  I hope that this has been a great week and at the weekend
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  ahead I always got a little bit of time and restoration for you
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  and those you love. Today, as we always do on a
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  Friday, we are reading a Psalm together and this is an epic,
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  epic Psalm. This is a very long Psalm
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  actually and it is a Psalm that talks about how good and
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  faithful God is despite how rubbish humans are.
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  And as we read through this Psalm and you hear about how
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  broken people are and how faithful God is, let that
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  message wash over you that it doesn't matter what we bring to
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  the table. We worship and believe in an
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  incredibly consistently good God.
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  What wonderful news that is. So let us settle in and share
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  the words of the psalmist. This is a Psalm of ASAP as we
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  hear about how good and consistent God is despite our
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  best slash worst efforts to live with Him.
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  Let's read together Psalm 78. All my people listen to my
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  instructions. Open your ears to what I am
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  saying, for I will speak to you in a parable.
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  I will teach you hidden lessons from our past stories we have
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  heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.
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  We will not hide these truths from our children.
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  We will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the
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  Lord, about His power and His mighty wonders.
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  For he issued his laws to Jacob. He gave his instructions to
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  Israel. He commanded our ancestors to
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  teach them to their children, so the next generation might know
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  them, even the children not yet born, and they in turn will
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  teach their own children. So each generation should set
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  its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles
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  and obeying his commands. Then they will not be like their
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  ancestors, stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give
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  their hearts to God. The warriors of Ephraim, though
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  armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of
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  battle. They did not keep God's covenant
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  and refused to live by his instructions.
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  They forgot what he had done, The great wonders He had shown
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  them the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plains of
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  Zoan in the land of Egypt. For he divided the sea and led
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  them through, making the water stand up like walls.
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  In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar
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  of fire. He split open the rocks in the
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  wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring he made
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  streams poor from the rock, making the waters flow down like
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  a river. Yet they kept on sinning against
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  him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert, They
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  stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they
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  craved. They even spoke against God
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  himself, saying God can't give us food in the wilderness.
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  Yes, He can strike a rocks of water, gushes out, but he can't
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  give his people bread and meat. When the Lord heard them, he was
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  furious. The fire of his wrath burned
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  against Jacob. Yes, His anger rose against
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  Israel, for they did not believe God or trust Him to care for
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  them, But He commanded the skies to open.
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  He opened the doors of heaven. He rained down manner for them
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  to eat. He gave them bread from heaven.
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  They ate the food of angels. God gave them all they could
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  hold. He released the east wind in the
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  heavens and guided the South wind by His mighty power.
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  He rained down meat as thick as dust, birds as plentiful as the
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  sand on the seashore. He caused the birds to fall
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  within their camp and all around their tents.
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  The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved.
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  But before they satisfied their cravings, while the meat was yet
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  in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and He
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  killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of
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  Israel's young men, but in spite of this, the people kept
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  sinning. Despite his wonders, they
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  refused to trust him, So he ended their lives in failure,
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  their years in terror. When God began killing them,
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  they finally sought him. They repented and took God
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  seriously. Then they remembered that God
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  was their rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer, but all
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  they gave him was lip service. They lied to him with their
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  tongues. Their hearts were not loyal to
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  Him. They did not keep his covenant.
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  Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy
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  them all. Many times he held back his
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  anger and did not unleash his fury, for he remembered that
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  they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never
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  returns. Oh how often they rebelled
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  against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that
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  dry wasteland. Again and again they tested
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  God's patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
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  They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from
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  their enemies. They did not remember his
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  miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders on the plain of Zoan.
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  For he turned their rivers into blood so no one could drink from
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  the streams. He sent vast swarms of flies to
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  consume them, and hordes of frogs to ruin them.
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  He gave their crops to caterpillars.
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  The harvest was consumed by locusts.
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  He destroyed their grapevines with hail, and shattered their
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  Sycamore figs with sleet. He abandoned their cattle to the
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  hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
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  He loosed on them his fierce anger, all his fury, rage and
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  hostility. He dispatched against them a
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  band of destroying angels. He turned his anger against
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  them. He did not spare the Egyptians
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  lives, but ravaged them with the plague.
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  He killed the oldest son of each Egyptian family, the flower of
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  youth throughout the land of Egypt.
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  But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them
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  safely through the wilderness. He kept them safe so they were
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  not afraid. But the sea covered their
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  enemies. He brought them to the border of
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  his Holy Land, to this land of hills he had won for them.
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  He drove out the nations before them.
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  He gave them their inheritance by lot.
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  He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes, but they kept
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  testing and rebelling against God Most High.
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  They did not obey his laws. They turned back and were as
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  faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a
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  crooked bow. They angered God by building
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  shrines to other gods. They made him jealous with their
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  idols. When God heard them, he was very
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  angry and he completely rejected Israel.
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  Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where
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  he had lived among the people. He allowed the arc of his might
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  to be captured. He surrendered his glory into
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  enemy hands. He gave his people over to be
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  butchered by the sword because he was so angry with his own
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  people, his special possession. The young men were killed by
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  fire. The young women died before
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  singing their wedding songs. Their priests were slaughtered
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  and their widows could not mourn their deaths.
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  Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep.
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  Like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor, He routed his
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  enemies and sent them to eternal shame.
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  But he rejected Joseph's descendants.
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  He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
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  He chose instead the tribe of Judah and Mount Zion, which he
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  loved. There he built his sanctuary as
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  high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth.
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  He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens.
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  He took David from tending ewes and lambs and made him the
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  shepherd of Jacob's descendants. God's own people, Israel.
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  He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful
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  hands. You are a good and faithful God,
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  so consistent through time and history.
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  And even here you are loving us, holding us resident in our
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  heart. Through your spirit, we just
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  praise you. Thank you, Jesus, for coming and
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  revealing the nature of yourself to us, the nature of our God to
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  us. We are so grateful for you and
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  so grateful how you continually draw us back no matter how many
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  times we mess up. Thank you for your generosity
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  and your patience with us. We are so grateful for you and
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  it's in your name we pray Jesus. Amen.