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 28, 2025, 7:08 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 87-90
Meditation Verses: 88:13-18
Thought
This psalm is surprising. The author acknowledges the Lord as the one who saves him, yet he has suffered from his youth and considers himself rejected by God. But for all that, he hasn't grown embittered against the Lord. He still cries out to the Lord for salvation. This is great faith and trust in the Lord despite all the Lord has brought upon him, all the suffering and loss.
Apr 27, 2025, 7:09 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 83-86
Meditation Verses: 86:14-17
Thought
The Psalmist is under attack from many men who do not fear God. Yet in the midst of that, the Lord has comforted him and helped him. He asks to be saved, but more than that. He asks for strength and for mercy, and for a sign of God's goodness so that his enemies would see and be ashamed. He needs help to be faithful to the Lord in the midst of the attack. Mercy and strength would be great help. A sign of God's favor towards him would be a great encouragement to him, as well as a sign to his enemies that the Lord has not abandoned him.
Apr 26, 2025, 1:59 PM
Passage Read: Psalm 79-82
Meditation Verses: 81:10-16
Thought
I wonder what it would look like if we all really submitted ourselves to the Lord. Of course, I don't need to wait and see. I'll see it soon enough. And I can focus on myself. I can work better at submitting to the Lord. What would it look like if I trusted fully in Him? He says He will fill my mouth with food. I certainly have no lack of food, but is it my doing or His?
Apr 25, 2025, 8:11 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 75-78
Meditation Verses: 78:34-38
Thought
"Whenever God slew them, they would seek Him." That alone is a sad statement. After all the power He had shown on their behalf, not against them, after all the good He did for them, they didn't really seek Him. It was when He killed some among them that they would fear and seek Him, but even then, not in truth. They would perform some of His assigned duties, but they didn't really honor Him. They told Him what He wanted to hear, but they had no love for Him, no loyalty.
Apr 24, 2025, 7:59 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 71-74
Meditation Verses: 73:16-17
Thought
It is so easy to be distracted and deceived by the prosperity and comfort of the wicked. When all I do is look at men, it is clear that to be wicked and live for my own pleasure is profitable, possible and desirable. If this is all there is, then why not? There would be no eternal judgment, so anything you can get away with among men, go for it! Why bother with righteousness or restraint?
Apr 23, 2025, 6:37 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 67-70
Meditation Verses: 68:21-23
Thought
This is brutal! The psalm begins with a cry to the Lord to destroy all His enemies, so that the righteous may rejoice and be glad. Then it comes to this point, where God is promising not just to kill all His enemies, all those who refuse to repent, but to bring them up from their graves and lay them at the feet of the righteous, so that the righteous can bathe their feet in the blood of their enemies--and the dogs of the righteous lick up the blood of the wicked!
Apr 22, 2025, 7:41 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 63-66
Meditation Verses: 66:10-13
Thought
It is God who tests us or allows us to be tested. He is responsible. He doesn't deny that in Job's case. He won't deny that in my case either. He designs the tests and whether He executes them Himself or through another, He watches for the results. He has His plans to bless those who prove faithful and righteous, or to rebuke those who prove faithless.
Apr 21, 2025, 7:52 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 59-62
Meditation Verses: 62:9-12
Thought
Men are nothing. They're just men! There is no difference between noble and common, between highborn and lowborn, they're all just men. The poor should not be ignored and the rich should not be idolized. Though the latter have much power over the lives of the former, they are still just men. Knowing God should put all men into perspective. More than that, since what sets them apart is money, wealth, riches, these things are easily idolized, especially in a society where fortunes can change and raise a man's status from low to high.
Apr 19, 2025, 9:59 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, 6:47 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.