A good day to all reading this! Today's reading is Psalm 10:7-11 and Proverbs 6:1-5:
Psalm 10:7-11
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
Here the Psalmist continues to describe the wicked. In previous verses, they're described as ignoring God due to their pride. In these they're described as predators, preying on the innocent poor, who are weaker than themselves. The wicked delude themselves into thinking that God either doesn't notice or doesn't care about the poor being preyed upon. But God does notice and care, and He has promised to punish their wickedness.
"And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." (Isaiah 13:11
"Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. " (Jeremiah 22:3)
"Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1:17)
Proverbs 6:1-5
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Surety was a promise to pay someone else's debt, probably something like co-signing a loan. It could be done out of mercy, when a friend or relative was in trouble, but it could also be done to secure an unnecessary loan, in which the borrower just wanted the money for his own purposes. Solomon warns against becoming surety for a friend, and advises someone who's done so to go to his friend and plead to be freed from his pledge to repay the loan, which could mean losing all a person has, and even he and his family being sold into slavery to pay the debt.
God's Word has much to say about slavery, including the bondage of Joseph and later of the Israelites in Egypt, but most of all, on the slavery of sin. Just as the Lord delivered both Joseph and the Israelites from their slavery, He is the one that can deliver us from our slavery to sin, if we trust in Him and allow Him to.
"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin."
(John 8:34)
In dying to pay for our sin, Jesus became our surety.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8)
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." (John 19:30)
Our sin debt is finished, teleó - that is, it has been paid in full on the cross by Jesus, acting as our surety.
Later in the New Testament, Paul, Peter and James describe themselves as slaves (bond servants) of Christ, because He paid our debt that we couldn't so that we may have eternal life.
God bless you!
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Great verses doule! In the Psalms, David tied "arrows," to things that were spoken. " My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.:" Psalms 57:4
Both passages that you shared today, really tied together well!
Thank you, livingwaters! Certainly the fierceness of the wicked is inspired by Satan, and he is like a lion too. In what you posted about Jesus, Satan and the "morning star" the other day, you mentioned how both Jesus and Satan are called lions, but for very different reasons. In the verses in psalms, the wicked are compared to lions too. Then Psalm 28 says this about the righteous: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion." I knew there were a lot of verses in the Bible about lions, but I didn't realize there were this many. And a lot of them are in Psalms, too.
Thre are a lot of mentions of lions, yep. I've heard people say that Psalms is, "just a book of poetry." It's far more than that. There's so much prophecy and edification in that book, and when we're reading through the psalms the sincerely of David pouring out his heart is easy to relate to. I love the Psalms.
It's interesting that the Bible calls us to be "Bold and meek," at the same time.
Just looking at the basic definitions, they are almost contrary to one another.
Moses was bold, he had to be bold to stand before Pharoah and say what God told him to say. God said this about him too:
(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) Numbers 12:3
That's something I'm going to spend more time looking at and praying about.
Also, I hope things are going better for you. You're still in my prayers.
That's how I've seen Psalms too. I've always been so inspired by David's faith, and His love for God and trust in Him. Psalms certainly aren't just poetry. I went to college for English, and Psalms and the whole Bible are nothing like the works of men. I spent years and years reading all sorts of books (and owned several thousand on my "to do" list) looking for answers, and it turned out they were all in one Book that I knew of and had read something of and even believed in, but never had gotten beyond just six or seven chapters in it, as I told you. Psalms are God's revelation, living and active, like the rest of His Word.
It is interesting, too, that the Bible calls us both bold and meek. Maybe "meek" means like, not bloodthirsty, and content with peace unless there's a need to fight. Like Paul wrote about "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men."
And thank you so much for your prayers, livingwaters. They mean very much to me. I'm continuing to depend on the Lord, one day at a time, and taking comfort in His promises and trusting in His will for me. He's done so much in my life already, and in particular in difficult times, that I know any difficulty brings me closer to Him, which is wonderful and makes any trouble worthwhile. So thank you very much for your prayers and concern, sis, and God bless you!
Amen doule! Your faith is so encouraging.
I'm watching/listening to the "Harbinger," now. Wow, the events correlating events now to events in Isaiah are amazing! Right down to the language, and the people who took part, then and now. I'm adding the video in case anyone wants to see it. God bless you too sister!
Yes it is amazing. Definitely the work of God, warning our nation to turn back. Thank you for posting this video, livingwaters. This is one I hadn't seen, and I just watched it and learned a few things I hadn't heard before.