Daily Bible Devotionals

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:1-2 (NKJV)

I remember the first time I heard the words of the bluesman, the Reverend Dan Smith, “Any man, if he knows how, can take a set of tools and build him a house.  But God has to build a home.” (“It Takes God To Build A Home,” Glasshouse Records 1992).  I was living in a grand old home myself, in midtown Memphis, a few blocks away from the old French Quarter hotel, when that song came floating down the hallway from a roommate’s stereo.  Smith was singing today’s psalm.  Written by King Solomon around the time of the Temple’s dedication, Psalm 127 begins by deflecting people’s attention from the architecture and focusing them on the “Architect,” the Lord.  Of course, Solomon had overseen the construction, and it would have been easy for him to attribute the Temple’s importance to his wisdom.

Solomon lets everyone know the security of the nation does not rest in its defense department but in its “Defender.”  Kind David had built-up the military, but peace does not rest in an overwhelming number of horses & chariots.  It rests in the “Prince of Peace,” Messiah Himself.  

Or, suppose you feel that your religious devotion will save you: “eating the bread of sorrows” is a reference to observing Passover, eating the unleavened matzo bread.  No, our holiness does not come from our devotion to God but in the God who is devoted to us…in that while we were yet sinners, He chose to give His life for us.  (Romans 5:8)

The “houses” of Israel (that need the Lord’s building) refer to the Temple, the nation, and the family.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate.” Psalm 127:3-5 (NKJV)

I love the imagery of a “quiver” of children. Children are like arrows that we attach our values and shoot into the future.  If we build our homes by our own counsel, what kind of values do we shoot into the future? (Psalm 1:1-2) But if we diligently teach our children God’s Word, we not only fortify this generation, but we ensure the future welfare of our descendants, the Church, and our nation.

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” Deut 6:6-7 (NKJV)

“When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Psalm 126:1-3 (NKJV)

Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?  Jeremiah had prophesied that the time of Israel and Judah’s captivity would be 70 years, and exactly 70 years later, King Cyrus decreed that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.

“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah.  Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem.  And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.  Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.  And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.” Ezra 1:2-6 (NKJV)

Upon first hearing Cyrus’ decree permitting their return to Jerusalem, the Jewish people who were inclined to return could not believe it!  It was like a dream, but then they laughed and eventually sang!  It is exactly how I would react if the Publisher’s Clearinghouse folks showed up at my front door with one of those huge golf tournament-sized checks!!  Disbelief turns to rejoicing!  Can you imagine singing this song as you were making your ascent to worship in Jerusalem, especially if, last year, you were a slave in Babylon?  Unbelievable, yet completely doable with God.  Even the Gentiles were amazed.  And that is our lesson, isn’t it?  NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD because He never gives up on you.  Notice how the psalmist moves from the rejoicing of the remnant to longing for revival among those who have yet to return.

“Bring back our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South.” Psalm 126:4 (NKJV)

Oh, that such a spirit could grip the believers of our nation, a country so desperately in need of revival!  Let our songs of rejoicing be mixed with pleas for revival, so our countrymen could rejoice in salvation, as well.  Lord, let our friends and neighbors who sow tears today reap a harvest of joy by this time next year!

“Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.  He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”  Psalm 126:5-6 (NKJV)

Grab your Bible & experience the Groundworks Ministries Podcast as Steve Wiggins leads us through the full chapter of Psalm 125. Click the links below to watch or listen now!

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“‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,’ let Israel now say – ‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us; then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul; then the swollen waters would have gone over our soul.’” Psalm 124:1-5 (NKJV)

The Passover seder is an annual traditional Jewish meal where the ordered re-telling of the Passover story occurs over a special dinner.  During that meal, just after the Exodus plagues against Egypt have been recounted, comes a moment of reflection called “Dayenu” (pr: die-A-new).  Dayenu means, “It would have been enough for us.” The purpose of the Dayenu section is to reflect on how God delivers over and above what we could have imagined.  Traditionally, there are 15 Dayenu verses recounted.  After each verse, those gathered around the seder table would say, “Dayenu!” meaning, “It would have been enough!”

Five Stanzas of Leaving Slavery

1) If He had brought us out of Egypt.  (Dayenu!)

2) If He had executed justice upon the Egyptians.  (Dayenu!)

3) If He had executed justice upon their gods.  (Dayenu!)

4) If He had slain their firstborn.  (Dayenu!)

5) If He had given to us their health and wealth.  (Dayenu!)

Five Stanzas of Miracles

6) If He had split the sea for us.  (Dayenu!)

7) If He had led us through on dry land.  (Dayenu!)

8) If He had drowned our oppressors.  (Dayenu!)

9) If He had provided for our needs in the wilderness for 40 years.  (Dayenu!)

10) If He had fed us manna.  (Dayenu!)

Five Stanzas of Being With God

11) If He had given us Shabbat.  (Dayenu!)

12) If He had led us to Mount Sinai.  (Dayenu!)  

13) If He had given us the Torah.  (Dayenu!)

14) If He had brought us into the land of Israel.  (Dayenu!)

15) If He built the Temple for us.  (Dayenu!)

Christians could easily say, “Had Jesus paid our sin debt but not filled us with His Spirit, Dayenu!  Had He filled us with His Spirit but not given us the Fruit of the Spirit, Dayenu! Had He given us the Fruit of His Spirit but not prepared a place for us in heaven, Dayenu!” etc.  This is the same idea David conveys in Psalm 124: God has delivered His people, and it would have been enough, but He just keeps going!

“Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”  Psalm 124:6-8 (NKJV)

“Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens.” Psalm 123:1 (KNJV)

Sunday mornings can be some of the most stressful times for Christian families.  At least it is for mine.  It never ceases to amaze me how we can awaken children five days in a row throughout the week, get them dressed, fed, and safely to school on time by 8 am without a hitch.  Yet it’s like WW III to get to church by 11 am on Sunday!  There can be no excuse other than spiritual warfare.

But a few blocks away from church, you spy the steeple peering out from the neighborhood trees or city billboards, and your heart begins to soften.  You pull into the parking lot and begin to see familiar faces, and you soften a little more.  Drop off the kids and walk with friends to a life group or the sanctuary, the music starts playing, and the burdens start dropping all around you.  Transcendence.  You are becoming aware that you are in the presence of the ever-present God.

I love how the psalmist, on his ascent to meet with the Lord in His temple, acknowledges that God does not live in the temple, per se.  He dwells in the heavens.  So, no matter where you wander (or are driven), just look up.  The God Who dwells in the heavens is with you, your ever-present help in time of need. (Psalm 46:1)

“Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us.” Psalm 123:2 (NKJV)

Perhaps, you have heard the phrase, “beckon call”?  That phrase has been modernized from its original “beck and call.”  Of course, we all know that a call is a verbal command, but the ancient word “beck” refers to a very slight motion of the hand, almost a secret signal.  The ultimate sign of discipline and respect would be when a ruler’s servants knew him so well that even the slightest twitch of the finger could fulfill his wishes without a word.  That is how intently we should seek the Lord and His Word daily so that we could rightly discern the times in which we live and how we should serve Him at any moment, recalling His Word stored in our hearts.  We should learn to love what He loves and disdain what He hates in the moment, sensing and knowing the Spirit’s desire without having to ask.  

“Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! For, we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorn of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.” Psalm 123:3-4 (NKJV)

The “beck” of the Lord could signal either blessing or rebuke.  That is the concern of the psalmist, who is among the devout remnant in Israel.  Will the Lord’s rebuke of the national downward moral trend (toward idolatry) produce collateral damage to those who have repented? God presides over and preserves His faithful children, but His desire (thus, ours should be) is for all to repent. (2 Peter 3:9)

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’” Psalm 122:1 (NKJV)

It may surprise you, but my favorite place to worship and study the Bible (and write these Bible devotionals) is not in church.  I prefer somewhere more comfortable, like a coffeehouse.  When I share that with people, they often ask how I can focus in a coffeehouse with all the people talking, the beans grinding, and the espresso machines hissing away.  But you see, I have four children, so I can tune out anything and focus on the voice of the Spirit!  That being said, there are times when the best place to worship is in the assembly of other believers at church.  Nothing compares to the experience of being in a room packed full of Christians, all of us praising and seeking the Lord together.  That is precisely what David is communicating.  It is not as if David could not write psalms and pray anywhere else.  But when the people of God congregate, something transcendent happens, and we get a glimpse of heaven.  That is what the New Testament writer of Hebrews was trying to communicate.

“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 (NKJV)

“Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.”  Psalm 122:2-5 (NKJV)

The “Testimony of Israel” (aka: “tabernacle of witness”) is another name for the tabernacle, the portable tent of worship that traveled wherever the Lord led the Israelites.  It is the Testimony because, from there, God spoke to Moses, Joshua, and the religious leaders, and they all bore witness of His Word.  The Menorah, altars, and Ark of the Covenant were also there.  It stood as a physical witness of God’s presence that the people could look upon and be strengthened in their faith, remembering that the Lord had chosen to be among them, articulate how they could serve and please Him, and be assured that He would deliver them.  (See also: Acts 7:44-50; Exodus 38:21; Numbers 1:50; 17:7-8)

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.’ For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, ‘Peace be within you.’ Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good.” Psalm 122:6-9 (NKJV)

As one ascended to worship the Lord in Jerusalem (after all, this is a song of Ascents), they were reminded that their peace (and the peace of the nation) would only be found in meeting with the Lord, as He instructed, in the place of His choice.

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills - from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”  Psalm 121:1-4 (NKJV)

A while back, I got a rather frantic call from my wife, “Stephen, the refrigerator is broken; it is defrosting and leaking all over the kitchen floor!”  Of course, I rushed home, but upon further inspection, I discovered the unit was cooling properly.  The source of the running water was a faulty water filter for the icemaker we had recently replaced.  In order to save money, we decided to buy an off-brand filter instead of the manufacturer’s filter.  Now, we had a pool of water on the floor.  Lesson learned!  

Israel had abandoned her “manufacturer,” the God of all creation.  The writer of Psalm 121, who warned against aftermarket gods, was very concerned.  We must remember that this is a “song of ascent.” And as the worshipper was making his journey to Jerusalem, he looked at the hills to the right and left of the road and spied the pagan shrines way up high.  Many of his countrymen had compromised their beliefs and stopped short of God’s standard, choosing to sort of worship God but to do so through pagan ways.  Folks, compromised worship is never true worship!  No, the Jesus follower on his pilgrimage was to be reminded that his help comes not from a man-made religion propped atop a high place but from the One Who is above all creation, the Maker of heaven and earth.  God neither sleeps nor loses focus on us.  He remains ever watchful, even as we are journeying through difficult circumstances.

“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right and. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”  Psalm 121:5-6 (NKJV)

Having personally made that shade-less journey from the Judean desert up to Jerusalem, with the fierce hot sun beating down upon me, I can attest to how the average person could be convinced to cut short their trip before reaching their destination.  A cool drink of water and the empty promises of pagan worship (to minister to the parched and tired flesh) would seem very enticing in that noonday sun when temperatures soar well over 100 degrees.  Or, what if you departed later in the day to avoid the heat, but the moon was not full so that you may lose your way? The pilgrim was to remember that God is our shade and our keeper, day and night.

“The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.  The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.” Psalm 121:7-8  (NKJV)

Consider Jesus’ prayer over us: “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15 (NKJV)

“In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you, or what shall be done to you, you false tongue? Sharp arrows of the warrior, with coals of the broom tree! Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.” Psalm 120:1-7 (NKJV)

Today’s psalm begins a collection of 15 psalms known as the “Songs of Ascent.”  These are psalms the Jewish people sang on their journey to worship in Jerusalem, the “city on a hill.” There were three times/year that God commanded all Jewish men to “go up” (ascend) and worship Him in Jerusalem: Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (Festival of Booths).  These songs would be the soundtrack to their pilgrimage.  Most of them cover a familiar pattern of conflict, reflection on God, and worship.  In that sense, we can relate to these songs because they convey the same process of reflection we go through whenever we go to church with our issues.  And we WILL have conflict in this life. Jesus promised as much.  

“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.’” John 15:20 (NKJV)

The Songs of Ascent help us remember that the peace that “passes understanding” is not the absence of conflict but the presence of peace in the midst of conflict.

“Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:5-7 (NKJV)

I heard one pastor say that Jesus did not come to get us out of trouble as much as He came to get into trouble with us!  As we “go up” to worship, it is important that our petitions for justice (concerning unjust treatment from people who oppose Christ in us) must be measured with the understanding that Jesus, our Advocate (1 John 2:1), also prays for us.  And even though we cannot see Him, He has promised never to leave or forsake us. (Psalm 23; Hebrews 13:5)

“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15 (NKJV)

So, while we are called by grace to be His witnesses to the lost and dying, His grace involves both our serving and suffering.  Still, He is presently with us, in the midst of our suffering, the Guarantor of our victory in what He has called us to accomplish in His Name, for His glory and by the power of His Spirit!  And there is peace in that.

“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord!  Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart! They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently.” Psalm 119:1-4 (NKJV)

Since entire books have been written about Psalm 119, it would be impossible to offer an exhaustive commentary within the confines of this daily devotional format.  So, here’s our takeaway.  Psalm 119 used the Hebrew alphabet to teach a lesson on the utmost centrality of God’s Word to righteous living while using the message of the importance of God’s Word in order to teach the alphabet!  In that sense, the truths of God’s Word are truly shallow enough for children to wade in, yet deeper than any theologian could fathom!  We are left with the knowledge that blessing and joy are inseparable from our diligent pursuit of godliness, as detailed in the Bible.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 1:1-2 (NKJV)

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NKJV)

Here we find a partnership between our pursuit of God’s Word and His revelation to us; our returning and His responding.  (Zechariah 1:3; Lamentations 5:21)

“Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.  Establish Your word to Your servant, who is devoted to fearing You. Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your judgments are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me in Your righteousness. Psalm 119:33-40 (NKJV)

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments. I am afflicted very much; revive me, O Lord, according to Your word. Accept, I pray, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me Your judgments. My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget Your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from Your precepts. Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever, to the very end.” Psalm 119:105-112 (NKJV)