Scripture Focus: Psalm 102.16-21
16 For the Lord will rebuild Zion 
and appear in his glory. 
17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; 
he will not despise their plea. 
18 Let this be written for a future generation, 
that a people not yet created may praise the Lord: 
19 “The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high, 
from heaven he viewed the earth, 
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners 
and release those condemned to death.” 
21 So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion 
and his praise in Jerusalem 

Reflection: Baring Your Soul
By John Tillman

Who do you bare your soul to when complaints bubble up from your heart? A stranger? A work colleague? 

It can be a horrible day, yet when strangers ask, “How are you?” we’ll mumble, “Fine. How are you?” and move along.

What is really lacking in these interactions is trust. How can we share deep hurt with those we do not trust deeply? In his commentary on Psalm 102, Federico Villanueva says, “We normally do not express our negative emotions to people we don’t know well, because it is like baring our soul.”

The first problem is one of understanding. A complex work-related problem will get blank stares from those uninformed about our industry. Our financial fears will seem either fanciful or frivolous to those outside our socio-economic level. Someone who doesn’t experience the same prejudices we face can’t truly know how it feels to be discriminated against.

Another hesitation comes when we fear judgment. If we complain, won’t they find us selfish? If we are angry, won’t they be afraid of us? If we are fearful, won’t they be ashamed of us?

Those with whom we have a loving, trusting relationship, however, can be trusted. We trust them to give us the comfort we need and to correct our shortcomings without despising us for our weaknesses.

Lament must be reserved for those who love us. This is why God is the perfect person to whom we can take all our laments.

Villanueva points out that Psalm 102 has sections of lament layered between hymns declaring trust in God. As you take your harshest, most raw emotions to God, sandwich them with statements of trust. Jesus modeled this in his darkest moments in Gethsemane. “Take this cup away” is balanced with a trust in God’s will. “Not my will, but yours.”

This is not to “stay positive” or spare God’s feelings. It is a reminder to us that the very reason we can pour out our deepest hurts to him is that God is worthy of our deepest trust. It is because he is holy that he is good.

The psalmist wrote this for us. We are those people, “not yet created,” who are mentioned by the psalmist. Jesus also mentioned us in prayer and has a special attentiveness to those hurting, struggling, and doubting.

Open up to Jesus today. Bare your soul to the most trustworthy listener.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
The righteous cry, and the Lord hears them and delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the broken hearted and will save those whose spirits are crushed. — Psalm 34.17-18

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 24-25  (Listen 7:01)
Psalms 102 (Listen 2:45)

Read more about Lamenting With Job
Lament can swallow up complaining in our lives. Lament is frequent and important in the Bible and should be in our lives as well.

Read more about Supporting Our Work
Our work needs your support. Please consider donating to support ad-free content that brings biblical devotionals to inboxes across the world.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 99.1-9
1 The Lord reigns, 
let the nations tremble; 
he sits enthroned between the cherubim, 
let the earth shake. 
2 Great is the Lord in Zion; 
he is exalted over all the nations. 
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name— 
he is holy. 
4 The King is mighty, he loves justice— 
you have established equity; 
in Jacob you have done 
what is just and right. 
5 Exalt the Lord our God 
and worship at his footstool; 
he is holy. 
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, 
Samuel was among those who called on his name; 
they called on the Lord 
and he answered them. 
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; 
they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them. 
8 Lord our God, 
you answered them; 
you were to Israel a forgiving God, 
though you punished their misdeeds. 
9 Exalt the Lord our God 
and worship at his holy mountain, 
for the Lord our God is holy. 

Reflection: Tremble in Hope
By John Tillman

God loves justice, the psalmist says. Nations should tremble before him when their rulers, courts, or laws do not establish justice.

Justice fails when victims are ignored, not believed, or when evidence is covered up. Justice fails when prominence, power, or personality prevent prosecutions from proceeding. Justice fails when it falls heavily only on the poor and powerless, while the wealthy and well-connected find leniency.

Are we establishing justice or undermining it? 

God establishes equity, the psalmist says. He loves even, level, and straight paths with fair access. God has no favorites. He poured his Holy Spirit onto men and women, Jews, Greeks, and every other race. His rule, justice, and gospel allow all people and places to live in unity and brotherhood.

Equity dies as tribalism and racism take hold. Jealousy, suspicion, and fear produce hatred. Fearing others’ success exposes our greed and selfishness. Refusing to lift others up gives tacit approval to those who pushed them down.

Are we insisting on equity or resisting it?

What nations do (and what individuals support) does not go unnoticed or unpunished. Sometimes, God punishes from without, sending one nation to crush another for their sins. Sometimes, God punishes from within, allowing nations to fall on their own swords or poison themselves…

Whether committed by dictators or appointed representatives, wicked deeds blossom, and the poisonous fruit stains the fingers and mouths of those who profit from it. Their dead bodies lie exposed beneath the trees as a warning, yet those hungry for power take the fruit and plant it in their gardens. This has happened, will happen, and is happening.

Are we eating the fruit of wickedness? 

If we tremble in conviction, we do not tremble without hope.

The psalmist also says God is forgiving. He punishes but also restores. He exiles but also calls us home. Wicked nations and individuals who repent will find him willing to bless.

Never lose hope. Christians are most gullible and vulnerable to manipulation when we lose hope and fail to trust in God. Grasping for hope in this world, we are liable to take the hand of the devil. 

When all seems lost, it isn’t. Our faith is founded on a moment when all hope seemed lost. Jesus went to the grave praying in hope to God. We can tremble in hope that our God will forgive and redeem us as we worship him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in your; I have said to the Lord, “ You are my Lord, my good above all other.” — Psalm 16.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 23  (Listen 4:20)
Psalms 99-101 (Listen 2:48)

Read more about No Such Thing as God Forsaken
Maturity is shown when we agree with God not about others’ sins but about our own.

Read more about Supporting Our Work
We rely on our donors to help us bring you ad-free biblical content that for free. Consider becoming a donor and supporting our work.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 94:17
17 Unless the Lord had given me help,
    I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

Reflection: Holidays and Death’s Silence
By Erin Newton

“What is there really to be thankful for this year?” I sat outside with my dad talking about the upcoming holidays. This is our first major holiday without my mom and there is the painful silence of her absence.

Holidays have all the promises of cheer and merriment as well as the oppressive weight of forced happiness and performative joy. Another friend lamented, “I feel rushed and unable to enjoy the season.” We all feel some sort of pressure from outside circumstances or inward expectations.

Psalm 94 would not be a text you would choose for Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent. It is a plea for God to enact justice against the wicked. The cry is to God as judge and avenger. But the psalmist’s foot is slipping. Life has become perilous. Anxiety sets in.

In many ways Psalm 94 is a perfect choice for this season. International wars rage around us. Family battles seem no less destructive. Undeserved suffering continues to plague our everyday life.

The Psalmist says, “Unless the Lord had given me help…” The recognition of crises, trauma, grief, pain, hopelessness, and our weakness to remedy it is important. In the same way I have been asked how I manage continuing school or writing or hosting Bible studies in the midst of the never-ending grief. My heart responds, “If it had not been for…,” and I continue with some truth that has anchored me in this turbulent time.

If it had not been for the truth of heaven, I would have dwelt in the silence of death.

If it had not been for the psalms of lament, I would have dwelt in the silence of death.

If it had not been for the hand of Jesus ministering through the hands of a friend who sits quietly next to me as I cry, I would have dwelt in the silence of death.

There are the anchors of faith to buoy us up from the depths of darkness. We remain in the waters, tossing and drifting at sea. But we remain afloat, perhaps just in survival mode as the waves of a busy, social-event-filled month crash over us.

Let us take a moment to consider how God supports us by his unfailing love (v. 18) and gives us joy through his consolation (v. 19). Meditate on how you would finish the phrase, “If it had not been for…”  

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Search for the Lord and his strength; continually seek his face. — Psalm 105.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 19-20 (Listen 5:02)
Psalms 94 (Listen 2:08)

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 21 (Listen 5:03) Psalms 95-96 (Listen 2:37)
1 Chronicles 22 (Listen 3:25) Psalms 97-98 (Listen 2:19)

Read more about Edge of the Abyss
The abyss of despair is like the watery depths of the ocean…The feeling is crushing—helpless, hopeless, vulnerable.

Read more about Supporting Our Work
Our ad-free content is not free to produce. It is supported by donors who help us bring biblical devotionals to inboxes across the world. Consider becoming a donor today.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 91:1-4
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Reflection: We Gather Together – Hymns for Giving Thanks
By Jon Polk

How did a Dutch patriotic song from the late sixteenth century, celebrating the Netherlands’ freedom from Spanish rule, become one of the hymns most often associated with American Thanksgiving?

The opening line of We Gather Together surely influenced its usage as a Thanksgiving hymn.

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing

Written by Dutch poet and composer Adrianus Valerius in 1597, the hymn was not translated into English in the United States until it was adapted by Theodore Baker in 1894.

Originally, the hymn celebrated the end of the Dutch War of Independence from Spain. The opening line highlighted the fact that under Spanish rule, Dutch Protestants were forbidden to gather for worship. The hymn specifically gives thanks to God for the end of the conflict, but also speaks generally of God’s providence in all the trials and challenges of life.

He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Theodore Baker, an organist and musicologist from New York, studied for his doctorate in Germany and translated the hymn from German for a new anthem called Prayer for Thanksgiving, thus encouraging its usage at Thanksgiving and for local town celebrations. 

By the first World War, the hymn’s militant language, such as “the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing” and “from the beginning the fight we were winning,” increased its popularity in America during those uncertain times.

The third and final verse, however, speaks more broadly of the cosmic conflict which one day God will bring to a close.

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

The hymn, which at its beginning speaks of the simple blessing of gathering together as Christians to worship God, takes us through a realization that we will experience difficulties in life, and ends with a hopeful resolution that God will ultimately rescue us and make us free. 

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine

This God who rescues us is indeed worthy of praise. This God who frees us is worthy of our gratitude. This God who leads us through the challenges of life is worthy of our humble adoration. 

Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. — Psalm 86.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 17  (Listen 4:14)
Psalms 91 (Listen 1:39)

Tomorrow’s Readings
1 Chronicles 18  (Listen 2:36)
Psalms 92-93 (Listen 2:09)

Read more about A Thanksgiving
Deny me wealth, fear, far remove
The love of power or name;
Hope thrives in straits, in weakness love,
And faith in the world’s shame.

Read more about Supporting Our Work
Support ad-free content that brings biblical devotionals to inboxes across the world. Give an end-of-year donation or join our monthly donors.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 90:14-17
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
    that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    for as many years as we have seen trouble.
16 May your deeds be shown to your servants,
    your splendor to their children.
17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
    establish the work of our hands for us—
    yes, establish the work of our hands.

Reflection: Bringing in the Sheaves – Hymns for Giving Thanks
By Jon Polk

What are sheaves and why do we need to bring them in?

For those unfamiliar with an agrarian way of life, a sheaf is a bundle of wheat stalks that has been tied together after being harvested.

Following the harvesting and bundling of the wheat, the sheaves are brought into a room for threshing, the process of removing the grain from the wheat and separating out the edible portions from the chaff, the useless stalks.

A good harvest and bountiful crop would be cause for rejoicing.

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. 

Knowles Shaw, born in Ohio in 1834, but raised in Indiana, was a minister in the Christian Church and because of his beautiful voice he was known as the “singing evangelist.” He wrote and composed music and published five song books of his own hymns.

Knowles was a prolific preacher and evangelist, and it is estimated that he baptized over ten thousand people in his lifetime.

Shaw’s most famous composition, Bringing in the Sheaves, was also one of his last and was inspired by Psalm 126:6, “Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.”

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

The hymn gives voice to our gratitude for God’s provision, sustenance, and watch care over our lives. In both times of joy and times of sadness, we have a God who blesses our labor and brings the harvest.

Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,
Fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;
By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

The singing evangelist Knowles Shaw would have us remember, however, that sowing and reaping in the scriptures is often used as a metaphor for sharing the gospel message.

When we come together as family and friends to celebrate and give thanks, we can easily get lost in the bounty of the provision and forget about the God who provided. Instead, may our thanksgiving be a testament to those around us of the faith we have in God’s providential care. May the sheaves we gather represent the impact our own generosity has on those around us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; let those who love your salvation say forever, “Great is the Lord!” — Psalm 70.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 16  (Listen 5:21)
Psalms 90 (Listen 2:03)

Read more about A Prayer of Harvesters
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few…”
There is much work to be done, Lord.
Send us to the field—into our cities.

Read more about Supporting Our Work
Support from donors like you is vital to continuing our work. Join our donors to support ad-free biblical devotionals shared around the world.