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August 30 - Psalm 129 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends. It's Sean here and it is the
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  30th of August, which makes it this year a Friday and well done
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  to you. Well done.
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  You've made it to the end of another week.
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  And here we stand at the precipice of the weekend.
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  But also this is a pretty cool day.
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  Did you know that 79 years ago something was born, something
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  very exciting, something that you have probably played with at
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  one point in your life? The Slinky.
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  Yep, those big old springs. I didn't realise this, but it
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  was actually an engineer from the Navy who was aboard his
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  ship. His name was Richard.
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  He was aboard his ship and as he was working, he bumped one of
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  the large springs on his desk and it went from that book down
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  onto another book, down onto his desk, down onto the ground and
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  then just landed there. He looked down and he thought,
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  well, that was fun. And after the war finished, he
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  continued to develop to find just the right shape, size and,
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  well, I don't know all the different variations and factors
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  that you can adjust in the way that a spring functions.
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  But he played around with them, and he came up with this
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  crackerjack design. And of course, none of the toy
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  shops are interested. They thought, this is a bit of a
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  useless toy. It's just a large spring.
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  Until one day, he got 400 of them made, and he showed them
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  off at a toy fair. And within an hour and a half,
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  he had sold out. And, well, the rest is history.
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  79 years. Today the Slinky was born.
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  So if you've got an old slinky sitting in a cupboard somewhere
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  at your place, pull it out, make some books into a bit of a tower
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  and give you a slinky a go. Or if you've got a staircase,
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  that makes your life even easier.
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  So Slinky day may come and go. And while 79 years sounds like a
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  long time, it's a whole lot further back than that that we
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  are going to join in with the psalmist as he writes another
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  song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.
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  We are going to continue that journey up toward that mountain,
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  up toward that city where our God dwells.
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  You ready? Yep, me too.
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  Let us read together Psalm 129. From my earliest youth, my
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  enemies have persecuted me. Let all Israel repeat this.
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  From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me, but
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  they have never defeated me. My back is covered with cuts, as
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  if a farmer had ploughed long furrows.
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  But the Lord is good. He has cut me free from the
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  ropes of the ungodly. May all who hate Jerusalem be
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  turned back in shameful defeat. May they be as useless as grass
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  on a rooftop, turning yellow when only half grown, ignored by
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  the harvester, despised by the binder.
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  And may those who pass by refuse to give them this blessing.
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  The Lord bless you. We bless you in the Lord's name.
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  Ah, Lord, The psalmist acknowledges what is true for
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  many of us, and that is that life can be complicated and
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  difficult sometimes as we do our best to serve you because living
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  in a way that honours you just seems like foolishness in this
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  world. And Lord, even as our backs are
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  covered in cuts, as we push toward you, despite the
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  criticisms of the world around us, Lord, help us remember that
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  of course, this world is not for you, but we are for you.
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  And that we do not set our eyes on the prizes around us in this
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  world, but we set our eyes further to the eternal prize
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  that rests in you, our loving, saving God, who is going to take
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  this old body and resurrect it with the new one where we will
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  live with you forever. And that, that is something we
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  look forward to that perfect day of being united with you.
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  So as we live this life of challenge, Lord, continue to
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  lift our eyes to you, our real prize and the goal that we're
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  striving for. And we pray all of this in your
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  saving, encouraging, and emboldening name Jesus, Amen.