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
May 16, 2025, 6:39 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 2-5
Meditation Verses: 2:16-19
Thought
This is a strong statement, that all who go to the adulteress never regain the paths of life! How can sin with an adulteress be so great as to keep a man from repentance? Solomon goes into greater detail in Chapter Five. There is something about giving in to the adulteress' enticement that breaks a man down to such extent that he wastes his strength and years on a false companion, and in the end sees that he has hated discipline and correction.
May 15, 2025, 6:43 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 148 - Proverbs 1
Meditation Verses: Psalm 149:6-9
Thought
It was Jesus' confidence in knowing where He came from and where He was returning to that allowed Him to humble Himself to serve us and endure all He did at the hands of godless men. That's what this passage shows us: This is our end: We will go forth praising the Lord with a double-edged sword in our hand, to carry out vengeance against all the nations that refused to believe our message, our pleading with them to be saved.
May 14, 2025, 6:38 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 144-147
Meditation Verses: 147:19-20
Thought
When the Lord reveals His laws and decrees, it is an incredible honor and privilege, and the people to whom He reveals them should be delighted! He has not done so to all nations. He has not done so to all peoples. But those He chooses to make known salvation, they are people He has chosen to live with Him forever. Everyone else will be cast into eternal torment. He chooses to save those whose eyes are opened to His wisdom and ways!
May 13, 2025, 7:06 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 140-143
Meditation Verses: 141:4-6
Thought
The psalmist recognizes the temptation of the wicked and prays to the Lord to keep him from being drawn into their ways. He doesn't even want to taste their delicacies, knowing that could lead him astray, and also encourage the wicked in their ways. He welcomes the rebuke of the righteous man, so as to keep himself from being drawn away. And he prays continually against the deeds of the wicked. He knows that one day they will all be destroyed, but in their last moments, they will know that all he said was right.
May 12, 2025, 7:54 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 136-139
Meditation Verses: 138:2-5
Thought
The psalmist praises the Lord for His love and faithfulness, out of which He has exalted His Name and His Word above all things. So He prays to the Lord for boldness and received it. Then he prays that all the kings of the earth would recognise how great is the Lord's Name and Word, so that they too would rejoice in them, singing the Lord's praises for His wisdom and ways. Why would he need boldness and stout-heartedness?
May 11, 2025, 6:37 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 132-135
Meditation Verses: 135:3-4
Thought
The Lord is worthy of praise for all the good He has done for His people. It proves His love for them, and His power on their behalf. Israel has enjoyed so many great things from the Lord, as the psalmist recounts. But the greatest of these is that He chose Israel to be His own precious possession to begin with! All other blessings flow from this one. When the Lord desires to bless, there is no limit. But to continue to enjoy His favor, His people must respond with humility and faithfulness to His decrees.
May 10, 2025, 9:18 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 128-131
Meditation Verses: 131:1-3
Thought
This is the path of peace, meaning freedom from worry and fear. To leave off trying to understand things that are too far beyond my grasp, to leave big things alone, to let them go. They are in the hands of God and He will take care of me and of them. I don't have to understand everything, I just need to trust in the Lord.
May 9, 2025, 6:40 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 124-127
Meditation Verses: 125:3-5
Thought
The Lord knows how great a test it is for the righteous to be surrounded and even ruled by the wicked. That brings in such temptation to do evil, to turn from righteousness and do wrong. So the Lord allows it, to test the righteous, to see who will remain faithful and who will give in to wickedness. Those who continue to do good will receive good from the Lord, but those who turn to crooked ways will be cast out of the land of the righteous when God overthrows the wicked.
May 8, 2025, 7:06 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 120-123
Meditation Verses: 120:2-4
Thought
The psalmist is distressed because of his neighbors and perhaps even his relatives, those he lives among. They are continually for war while he is for peace. They continually lie while he delights in truthfulness. He asks the Lord to be delivered from them. Why doesn't he move away? He also at least thinks to himself that they will be punished with fire and arrows.
May 7, 2025, 6:59 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 119
Meditation Verse: 119:152
Thought
The psalmist truly loves the Lord and His law. He does not consider it a burden, but a delight to know and walk in obedience to God's commands. Nor does he consider complete obedience to be beyond the grasp of ordinary men who love God! Though he asks for help to remain steadfast in obedience, he never considers it hopeless to keep all God's decrees. And in his pursuit of God's law, he has discovered that these commands are to last forever. Of course!