Use this devo as you are able, in whole or in part. Don’t feel compelled to read it all. Simply read and meditate upon whatever catches your attention. The goal is enjoying time with God through His Word and in prayer. Questions about the devotional elements?
Call to Prayer
“The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.” (Ps. 103:6)
Prayer of Confession
Saving God, I stand in awe before the mystery of your providence. Through our sometimes desperate decisions and fearful circumstances, you work your loving will. Give me patient confidence in troubled times and gratitude when things go well, knowing that all things are in your hand. Amen. (Prayer based on the Heidelberg Catechism Question 28)
*Prayer borrowed from Philip Reinders’ Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year
Reading Plan
This reading plan will help you to develop the habit of being in God’s Word each morning and evening. Come to this time with expectation. Expect God to reveal himself to you. Expect that he delights in you being there, even when you’ve wandered away. Growing a spiritual habit is a slow, patient process. So be kind to yourself as you grow!
Readings are hyperlinked. Simply hover over the passage or click Morning/Evening Reading (email version).
Morning Readings:
Pray Psalm 98 | Read Matthew 13
- Praying the Psalms: Read slowly. Take note of words and phrases. Bring them before the Lord in prayer and personalize the passage as you pray.
- NT Context: Matthew provides the comprehensive context by which we see all God’s creation and salvation completed in Jesus, and all the parts of our lives—work, family, friends, memories, dreams—also completed in Jesus. Lacking such a context, we are in danger of seeing Jesus as a mere diversion from the concerns announced in the newspapers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Meditate on the passage, noting a few words or a phrase that stood out. Take them to God in prayer.
Evening Readings:
Pray Psalm 99 | Read 2 Samuel 5
- OT Context: “Four lives dominate the two-volume narrative, First and Second Samuel: Hannah, Samuel, Saul, and David. Chronologically, the stories are clustered around the year 1000 b.c., the millennial midpoint between the call of Abraham, the father of Israel, nearly a thousand years earlier (about 1800 b.c.) and the birth of Jesus, the Christ, a thousand years later.” Reflect on the passage. Who was the original audience, and what was their situation? How is that relevant to you today?
Sermon Devo
This summer we are exploring what it means to keep “in step” with the Spirit. Each week we will consider a specific fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) by looking at other stories and themes throughout Scripture that express this fruit.
Dale Ralph Davis helps us today in understanding God’s goodness through his meditation on what he calls the “shepherd geography” of Psalm 23.
Read: Psalm 23
“The last locale of ‘shepherd geography’ is the place of Christ’s abiding rest: ‘Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I shall turn in to the house of Yahweh for length of days’ (v. 6). Let us look at the picture (6a) and the perspective (6b) in this verse. The first part of the verse is a delightful picture…But the usual translation ‘follow’ is too tame for the verb—it should be ‘pursue.’ It is a common Hebrew verb frequently used of pursuing enemies, whether, for example, Pharaoh pursuing Israel (Exod. 14:8, 9), or Israel pursuing Midianites (Judg. 7:23, 25). Here David puts a playful spin on the verb. He says that what will ‘pursue’ him will be Yahweh’s ‘goodness’ (Heb., ṭôv) and ‘faithful love’ (ḥesed).
David says it’s as if Yahweh has His two special agents He sends out, ṭôv and ḥesed, and these agents are in pursuit of David, seeking to overtake him, waylay him, and dog his tracks ‘all the days of his life.’ But who needs to fear such beloved denizens?
Now verse 6a is not only a picture but a conviction of faith: ‘Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life.’ Is this not incredibly naïve? Not in the context of the psalm. The David who says 6a has just written verses 4-5. He has taken full stock of the valley of the shadow of death (v. 4) and of the presence of enemies (v. 5); he is not ignoring or whitewashing anything.
And yet he still says, ‘Only goodness and faithful love….’ There is a certain chemistry in believing experience that can combine brute facts with buoyant faith.”
Evening Prayer of Examen
- Where did you move with or feel close to Jesus today?
- Where did you resist or feel far from Jesus today?
- Where is Jesus leading you tomorrow? Ask for joy as you follow him.
Benediction
“The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” (Ex. 15:2)
