Waist Deep 2018 - A Daily Dip in the Bible

Psalm 141: 3 Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. (NIV) Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.* David is concerned about being surprised into sin. He could have allowed himself to express resentment toward his enemies, but instead he prays for the right attitude. David knew that our mouths are capable of spewing out damaging words we didn’t even know we were thinking. In the “thoughtlessness of conversation,”* we often get caught up in the moment and say things we shouldn’t. It would be helpful if God would just lock the door of our lips and throw away the key, but there are times when you can’t not say anything. In court, we swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In life, we must be careful to say nothing that could convey other than the truth. Someone has said that it would be a pity for a mouth that has been used in prayer to be defiled with lies...

Psalm 139: 23, 24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (NIV) It is only by invitation that he comes in and cleanses us.* Psalm 139 began with David proclaiming that God has searched him and knows him; so now why is he asking God to search him? Perhaps the previous search was for the sake of God’s information; now David wants to know for himself what God has found. David is fully aware that he can’t fool God and so he is willing to surrender his disguises and let God reveal his hidden sins to himself. But knowing isn’t enough. Once his offensive ways have been exposed, he pleads for God’s direction. When my first marriage was crumbling, I talked my husband into going with me to a Christian counselor. To friends and family, I had confided some of what we were going through but I feared they weren’t being objective – of course they would take my side! ...

Psalm 139: 13, 14 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (NIV) The very fact of something's having been made is certain proof of there having been a maker.* The human body was purposefully made. It was not accidentally formed or gradually produced. God designed it and breathed life into it. He created the prototype out of nothing but his power. He is the God of biology. I may be the result of a genetic combination made up of parts of my mother and my father but I am not just a random product of my parents’ combined DNA. I am the person God meant for me to be. He chose the ingredients that would make me me . We join David in exclaiming over the intricacies of the human body and marvel that this physical shell can contain our soul. What keeps the eternal part of us from breaking free from the body?  In Colossians 1: 17,...

Psalm 139: 1–4 O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. (NIV) His care for us is personal and he deals with each of us individually.* I hate to put this thought into your mind but perhaps you were already thinking the same thing: “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.” Yes, it’s a song about Santa Claus that appears to have been taken from David’s psalm about God’s all-knowing character. Sometimes we don’t see God as the personal God that he actually is. Yes, he’s a great big God who knows everything but we fail to remember that he doesn’t have to prioritize his to-do list. He can keep the planets in orbit at that same time that he is reading my mind.  Davi...

Psalm 131: 2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul . . . like a weaned child is my soul within me. (NIV) A good father doesn’t necessarily give his children everything they think they want.* Not all children are the same, but I have heard of many who were not ready to be weaned – from bottle, breast, or pacifier – when Mom thought they were ready. It takes determination not to give in to the baby’s whining and demands but the mother wants what is best for her child so she demonstrates her love in a way that to the child doesn’t seem so tender! The psalmist is telling us that though it was a struggle to get to this point, now he knows how to feed himself and it’s a good thing. David claims to have stilled and quieted his soul. Did he – do we – have the power to do that? In the analogy of the weaned child he alludes to the struggle that took place before he arrived at this state of mind. When we give up our determination to have our own way, we are ready to let G...

Psalm 130: 3 If you, O lord, kept a record of sins, O lord, who could stand? (NIV) We cannot justify ourselves before God, or plead Not guilty.* What! God doesn’t have a record of my sins? Does that mean that the only reminder he has of my past transgressions is when I bring them up? I can’t seem to forget that the sin God forgave me for yesterday is the same one he forgives me for today. I think it would bother me less if I just picked out a “sin of the day” for the sake of variety. I am thankful for God’s forgetfulness. When I say, “I’m sorry,” he forgives and forgets. I don’t have to wait for him to “get over it” or “work it out.” He doesn’t nurse a grudge, wallow in his hurt, or try to get even. He doesn’t question my motives or doubt my sincerity. I am a forgiving sort myself. When someone wrongs me, I tend to get over it and go on with my life. But what I forget and what I remember seems to be completely out of my control. God – who knows everything – can’...

Psalm 127: 2 For he grants sleep to those he loves. (NIV) It is impossible to get exhausted in work for God. We get exhausted when we try to do God’s work in our own way.* Everyone sleeps. Some high-energy types don’t need as much sleep as I do. Insomniacs may not sleep when they want to or as much as they would like but eventually their bodies shut down. Jesus was so tired that he fell asleep while on a fishing boat and would have slept through a fierce storm if his terrified disciples hadn’t decided to wake him. (Can’t you just hear the discussion among the other passengers? “You wake him up.” “No, you wake him up.” “How can he sleep through this?”) Within context, this verse is talking about the futility of getting up early and staying up late to work for our sustenance. An alternate rendering says, “For while they sleep, he provides for those he loves.” In other words, we may work ourselves to death but it is God who provides for us. So whether the psalmist ...

Psalm 122: 6 May those who love you be secure. (NIV) Being in God’s will is the only safe place to be.* Within its context, this verse is part of a prayer for peace for Jerusalem, and could be regarded either as a promise or a prayer. Some versions of the verse render it as a request for prosperity for those who love God. Prosperity and security might seem to go hand-in-hand, but earthly prosperity comes and goes. Jobs, banks, investments – these all let us down. Where is our security then? One Bible scholar says that the word “prosper” doesn’t really convey the original meaning of this verse either. The “essential idea” of the Hebrew word, he says, is that of “quietness or rest.”*   That interpretation better conveys what God promises regarding prosperity. While material wealth is often enjoyed by Christians, we are not promised that kind of prosperity or security. When we rest securely in the Lord, our sinful desires are subdued; our craving for truth ...

Psalm 121: 7, 8 The Lord will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. (NIV) God claims lordship over all the details of our lives.* These verses remind me of a job description. In the employee manual is listed all the duties of the position and at the end is added “. . . and all other duties as may be assigned,” just in case they missed something. We certainly don’t want to hire someone and have them come back and say, “No one told me I would have to be in a parade or talk to a group of middle-schoolers.” (Things I hate to do and have had to do as part of a job.) It wasn’t enough for the psalmist to say that God would keep us from all harm. No, he had to make sure we understand the all-inclusiveness of God’s protection. He wants his readers to understand that God is on the job whether we are coming or going, from this moment on and forever.  To paraphrase something I read e...

Psalm 121: 3, 4 He who watches over you will not slumber . . . he . . . will neither slumber nor sleep. (NIV) Watch for God’s provision and testify to his care.* We need sleep - God made us that way. I can testify to the effects of not-enough-sleep on the human body. From trying to stay awake in class after an all-nighter; to falling asleep at the wheel on a long road-trip and waking up in the next lane; to getting up in the night to take care of newborn twins and waking up in my bed with no recollection of how I got there or what I had done with my babies. God, on the other hand, doesn’t need sleep and doesn’t do it. He is always on the job. We never have to guess when would be a good time to get in contact with him; we don’t have to worry that we’ll wake him. It’s always the right time.   And it’s a good thing that we can rest under his ever-watchful care; that we are benefactors of his “sleepless vigilance,”*   because our enemy never sleeps eith...