Personal Devotions
Notes from Mark's personal Bible reading and meditation
With a goal to apply one truth from each day's reading to my life that day
Apr 19, 2025, 4:59 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 55-58
Meditation Verse: 55:19
Thought
The psalmist's prayers in these several chapters are against the wicked, the truly wicked who will not repent, who have no fear of God! They may be strangers, they may be false friends who have been very close. They bring grief and distress into his life; they twist his words and slander him. They will not be saved, and that is a hard lesson to learn.
Apr 17, 2025, 1:47 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 51-54
Meditation Verses: 51:16-17
Thought
What God has sought from the beginning of time and continues to seek until the end of time is a broken and contrite heart. What God values far more than sacrifices and offerings is a heart that submits to Him and His will, that is eager to know Him and do His will, that is quick to respond rightly to correction and guidance. Humility is the crown jewel of Christianity, of Judaism, of seeking and knowing and worshiping God.
Apr 16, 2025, 1:56 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 47-50
Meditation Verses: 50:16-22
Thought
The wicked include those who stand in the assembly of the saints and recite God's Words, but yet hate God's commands and cast them behind their backs. They hear and repeat God's instructions, but they do not believe them and they immediately forget them. Instead, as soon as they can, they gather together with thieves and adulterers; they speak evil, even slandering their own flesh and blood.
Apr 15, 2025, 2:05 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 43-46
Meditation Verses: 43:1-3
Thought
Sometimes the righteous dwell among wicked people and that alone is cause for their suffering. The wicked hate the righteous and outnumber them, so they make life miserable for those who walk in God's ways. And God allows suffering so as to test and prove the faith of the righteous one.
Apr 14, 2025, 1:54 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 39-42
Meditation Verses: 40:9-10
Thought
In the previous Psalm, David tells of keeping silent in the presence of the wicked, but here he says how he proclaims the Lord's righteousness in the great assembly. He knows the wicked have no interest in hearing truth, especially when several gather together; they only encourage each other in their wicked thoughts. But in the great assembly, there David must speak of the Lord's love and truth and faithfulness and salvation.
Apr 13, 2025, 2:38 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 35-38
Meditation Verses: 37:16-17
Thought
The righteous have little, and it is better to be the righteous who have little, than to be the wicked who have much. It is better to have little because of righteousness than to have great wealth because of wickedness. A few verses later, the psalmist even says that the righteous give generously, though they have little! Money and wealth are not important to the righteous, but people are, and helping and meeting needs.
Apr 11, 2025, 1:51 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 31-34
Meditation Verses: 32:1-2
Thought
How blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven! This whole Psalm is about the need for and joy that comes with confession of sin. He finds forgiveness who confesses his sin to the Lord. But the one who doesn't confess, who lies about it in his heart, denying his wrong, this man suffers at the hand of the Lord. The Lord wants him to confess and renounce his sin so that he can be forgiven, but the pride of the man stands in his way.
Apr 10, 2025, 1:51 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 27-30
Meditation Verses: 27:1-5
Thought
It is because of David's longing for the Lord and delight in Him that he has nothing to fear. Even if men should seek his life or war breaks out against him, he has nothing to fear, because the Lord protects his life. It is because David loves the Lord so much that he longs to dwell forever in the house of the Lord and look upon His glory and beauty.
Apr 9, 2025, 1:41 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 23-26
Meditation Verses: 26:1-3
Thought
David is so bold to pray this way, so confident in his love of the Lord and desire to please Him. He invites the Lord to test and try his heart and mind. He is blameless before the Lord because he has put the Lord's love ever before him. He is not just trying to keep rules, though that is the result. He believes the Lord is so good and righteous and glorious that he can't help but love Him and delight in His ways.
Apr 8, 2025, 1:57 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 19-22
Meditation Verses: 22:20-24
Thought
This passage is prophetic of Jesus' suffering and the promise of His resurrection. Did David write it about circumstances in his own life that paralleled Jesus or did he see Jesus from afar? What catches my attention is that in one line, David is crying for help and the next he is praising God, without sign of deliverance. Jesus wasn't delivered from His suffering, but died.
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