Daily Bible Devotionals

“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” Psalm 100:1-5 (NKJV)

Again, the psalmist exhorts the nations (“all you lands”) to serve the Lord.  He does not take a punitive tone, as if to say the Gentiles will get what they deserve when the Lord judges them for their pagan idolatry. Instead, he extends the grace of God to the nations on the condition that they will repent and serve the Lord.  Notice that the “lands” are not called to serve the Lord begrudgingly.  They are to serve Him with gladness.  They are not commanded to shrink back in fear but called to draw near to His presence with singing.  This kind of grace, extended to the Gentiles in Scripture, was lost on the Jewish culture for many generations.  Who knows if they ever embraced it?  It was even a mystery to zealous religious Jews like a young rabbi named Saul, whom we know as the apostle Paul.

“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of (Messiah)  Christ Jesus for you Gentiles - if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of (Messiah) Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in (Messiah) Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.” Ephesians 3:1-7 (NKJV)

A great benefit of being a follower of Jesus is that He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is unavailable to non-believers.  That is why rabbi Saul (Paul) could be well versed in the Biblical text before he was converted, yet unaware of the context to the extent that he believed he was doing God’s will by persecuting Christians!  But once Paul was saved and filled with the Spirit, he finally understood the Word from God’s perspective.  Thus, he reversed his zeal from persecuting Christians to preaching the gospel, even to GENTILES! When we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of God’s Word, He reveals the deep mysteries of God.

“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever, because, ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.’ Now this is the Word which by the gospel was preached to you.” 1 Peter 1:22-25 (NKJV)

“The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He dwells between the cherubim; let the earth be moved! The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name - He is holy.” Psalm 99:1-3 (NKJV)

There is only ONE true God, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Furthermore, since He created the whole world, YHVH (Yahweh) is Lord over all creation.  That means that all men, everywhere, are accountable to Him.  Even those who do not believe in Him must someday answer to Him.  (Acts 17:30)

Today’s psalm begins with the holiness of God, who is high above the peoples and makes the nations tremble.  We should tremble when we first encounter the God of all creation and when we learn that we fall short of His perfect standard.

“For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….” Romans 3:22b-23 (NKJV)

“For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.  They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” Romans 3:9b-12 (NKJV)

But we should not tremble forever because, while the bad news (our sinfulness) is very bad, it causes us to appreciate the good news!

“Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” Acts 28:28 (NKJV)

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV)

Whether you are Jew or Gentile, or a great religious leader like Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, you are still a sinner in need of God’s grace and mercy.  Nobody is so good that they don’t need salvation.  But even though you may have committed great sins, nobody is so bad that they cannot receive salvation! God’s holiness (in His Word, the Bible) exposes our sin.  But Messiah Jesus has atoned for it on our behalf!

“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 (NKJV)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (NKJV)

“Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!  For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” Psalm 98:1-3 (NKJV)

My father has excellent credit.  It is one of his most treasured accomplishments.  His credit is so good that (until recent banking regulations) he would borrow money, yet he never filled out a loan application.  It's true!  When I was a boy, my father bought cars with a personal check written for an amount he did not have in his personal account.  In the memo line of the check, he would write the bank manager's name; when the bank received the check, the manager would extend the money to my father’s account on a 90-day note.  Dad could write checks in faith that the bank would loan him the money and the bank would extend the money, knowing he would repay them within 90 days.  And he always did.  Trust is character over time.  When someone (in Dad’s case, both parties) displays character over time, trust is built.  And trust is maintained, proportional to one’s efforts to remain of trustworthy character.

God can be trusted!  His unchanging character is chronicled throughout the Bible.  That is why the Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. (Romans 10:17)  When we read about God’s faithfulness and eternal, unchanging holy character, our faith in Him grows. Spending time in the Bible, we learn to trust Him more and more.  We have faith in God because He is trustworthy.

But what of us?  Are we trustworthy?  We want to have faith in God, and intellectually, we can agree that there is irrefutable evidence in the Bible that He is worthy of our trust.  But then comes the moment of truth: will we place our faith in Him?  Let me encourage you: there is nothing better you can do with your life than to trust an unknown future to the known God!  We say we trust God, and He graciously says, “Prove it!”  He tests our testimony.

FAITH is not FACT until it is tested.  The convincing evidence of “things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1) is that our hopes are realized to the full extent that we understand and trust God’s Word.  Our faith is strengthened, directly proportional to our willingness to hold on to the end, to the point where we experience His completion of the faithful thing He has called and equipped us to accomplish.

Today’s psalm is an encouragement to hold on to the end!  Only then can the OLD song, “Will we make it if we trust the Lord in the thing He has called us to?” be replaced with the NEW hit, “I can do all things through Messiah, Who strengthens me!” (Philippians 4:13)  When we live faithfully, it encourages others to trust the Lord, as well; and that encouragement extends to all the nations!

Grab your Bible & experience the Groundworks Ministries Podcast as Steve Wiggins leads us through the full chapter of Psalm 97. Click the links below to watch or listen now!

“Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.” Psalm 96:1-3 (NKJV)

Perhaps, the most requested song in live music settings is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.”  Who hasn’t been at a concert and someone (jokingly) yelled out, “Free Bird!”?  It may surprise you that Free Bird wasn’t an instant hit.  A friend of mine attended a Skynyrd concert in 1972 when the band announced they were about to play a song to be released on their upcoming album.  When the 10-minute Free Bird ended, my friend said he and his friends just looked at each other, wondering whether they liked it.  “We came to the show to hear what we already knew,” he shared, “but the next year, when we saw Skynyrd, we got excited when the Free Bird intro started.”  

As a worship leader whose job is always to teach new songs to a congregation, I have observed that people typically do not welcome change.  But new songs do not become classics unless people open their hearts and give them a chance.  Today’s psalm begins with a call for all the nations to hear a new song: The God of Israel is the God of the WHOLE EARTH, and He loves Gentiles!

“For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” Psalm 96:4-5 (NKJV)

Not only does He love Gentiles, but He alone is worthy of praise!

“Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns; the world also is firmly established, it shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously.’”  Psalm 96:7-10 (NKJV)

Since He is the ONLY God, only He can bestow salvation and judge righteously!

“Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and all its fullness; let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord. For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth.” Psalm 96:11-13 (NKJV)

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: ‘Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.” So I swore in My wrath, “they shall not enter My rest.”’” Psalm 95:6-11 (NKJV)

When semi-retired artist manager Shep Gordon married a raw food chef three days before his 60th birthday, he arranged to have his honeymoon on an extremely exclusive resort on a tiny, remote island in Hawaii that usually plays host to just one or two couples. When Gordon’s wife’s laptop computer broke, he called the front desk for assistance.  The hotel clerk said the vacationer on the other side of the island may be able to lend assistance.  When the “repairman” showed up several minutes later, it was Steve Jobs, owner of Apple Computers.  The owner of Apple was kind enough to personally fix his company’s product on his vacation.

Today’s psalm states that God is not a disinterested manufacturer.  Quite the contrary, He is personally involved with us because He loves us, and we bear His brand.  He is both manufacturer and repairman, Creator and Shepherd.  In a world full of so-called “shepherds” (Jeremiah 23:1-3), whose interest in the sheep extends only as far as their supply of wool and mutton, we (the sheep of His hand) delight in the Good Shepherd, and our ears are tuned to hear His voice.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” John 10:27-29 (NKJV)

Yes, the God of all creation desires for all men, everywhere (Acts 17:30-31), to repent.  The question is not whether men have the ability to hear the gospel call.  The question is whether men will choose to heed it!

“So I swore in My wrath, ‘they shall not enter My rest.’ Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’” Hebrews 3:11-15 (NKJV)

The call goes out, not only for mankind to believe, but also that men and women who believe will choose to be used of God to win others! “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”  Romans 10:14 (NKJV)

“Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law, that You may give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit is dug for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast off His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance. But judgment will return to righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it.” Psalm 94:12-15 (NKJV)

The Hebrew word for “law” is “Torah.”  Interesting word, Torah.  Torah does not translate as “law”; rather, Torah means “teaching.”  For instance, the first five books of the Bible are referred to in Judaism as the Torah. (Although, in a greater sense, all Scripture is Torah.)  While the first five books contain the Mosaic laws, they mostly contain narratives from which we observe and learn how to live through the stories of how God interacts with Creation, the patriarchs, and various other people.  I mention all that because some Christians bristle at the mention of the word “law” for fear of becoming overly legalistic.  It helps to understand the psalmist is not saying we are blessed if we become attorneys.  He is exhorting us that we should seek God’s “teaching” as revealed by His Spirit  (“You…O Lord”).  His message is akin to Psalm 1.

“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)

So, the purpose of Psalm 94 is not to bind us with overt legalism but to free us to live joyfully, to give us “rest from the days of adversity.”  Notice how the wicked (those who disregard the Bible) unknowingly have a “pit” dug for them!  It would be convenient to go through life believing that unbelievers always sin while believers never transgress.  But the reality is that sometimes unbelievers live comparatively upright lives, while we believers sin on occasion.  So, what happens when the righteous sin, if our feet “slip,” as it were?

“If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” Psalm 94:18-19 (NKJV)

The idea of mercy (not getting what you would otherwise deserve) is of great comfort to us!  When we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us.  While we may experience rebuke for our sinful actions or thoughts, we can rest assured His rebuke is mitigated because the fullness of our sin was laid upon Jesus!  Hence, our anxiety finds comfort.  God will instruct but not forsake His people (Jew or Gentile) who place their faith and trust in Messiah alone for their salvation.

“I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!” Romans 11:11-12 (NKJV)

“The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved. Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea. Your testimonies are very sure; holiness adorns Your house, O Lord, forever.”  Psalm 93:1-5 (NKJV)

Throughout the Bible, water is used both as an image of judgment (Noah’s flood and Pharaoh’s army drowning in the Red Sea) and of deliverance (Noah’s ark floating above the waters of Judgment and Israel crossing the Red Sea as on dry ground).  Whenever God’s people are faced with difficult life circumstances that overtake them like a flood, we often wonder if this will be the instance where our sin has caught up with us.  Yes, we all feel guilty because we all sin from time to time.  The mark of a Christian is not their perfection but, rather, their direction. It is not that we are sinless, but as we follow Jesus, we should desire to sin less and less.

It is important in trying times that we do not trade what we KNOW for what we DON’T KNOW.  We don’t know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.  So, today we have a psalmist who is bolstering his faith during a difficult season by reminding himself what he knows about God: He is on His throne, and we are not alone!  Floods are making a loud noise as they course through your town, headed straight toward your house.  Huh?  Well, what does God’s Word say about His ability to handle rowdy waters?

“They will pass through the sea of trouble; the surging sea will be subdued and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.” Zechariah 10:11a (NIV)

“You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations.” Psalm 65:5-7 (NIV)

“Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Whose hands have gathered up the wind? Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son? Surely you know!” Proverbs 30:4 (NIV)

Yes, Jesus knows a thing or two about controlling the world He created. (John 1)  He can summon water, withhold it, cause it to rage, calm, or even walk on it!  So, the next time your life is swamped, remember God established this world and has established His testimony in you.  Call upon His Name, for He alone has the power to deliver.  The waves are mighty, but he is mightier!

“When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever. But You, Lord, are on high forevermore. For behold, Your enemies, O Lord, For behold, Your enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies; my ears hear my desire on the wicked who rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”  Psalm 92:7-15 (NKJV)

I have been in the music business all of my adult life.  I suppose I will always be in it, to some extent, given the sizeable catalog of published songs I’ve written/co-written.  One thing I have learned in the songwriting business is that it’s nearly impossible to write a blues song while you are in the midst of difficulty.  Blues songs are primarily written in retrospect, after the storm has passed.  Then, when the clouds clear away, you can sort through the rubble from the storm more objectively.  But while everything is flying apart, you’re basically rolled up into a ball, hoping you can make it out alive!  Anyone who goes through a hurricane knows what I am talking about.  But every hurricane has an “eye,” a pause in the destruction.  

That is what the Sabbath is for believers: A pause from an otherwise hectic week so that we can focus on the Lord.  Today’s psalm is titled “A Song For The Sabbath Day,” and the subject matter is a contrast between people who praise the Lord and seek Him in His “courts” (the temple) and those “senseless fools” who do not.  God knew that (in addition to seeking Him every day as we go about our work - Deuteronomy 6:6-7), we need to pause and do nothing but remember Him for an entire day every week, so He commanded us to observe the Sabbath:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11 (NKJV)

Lest we dismiss the Old Testament, consider the New Testament writer of Hebrews.

“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)

So, how well are you doing with obeying God’s command to observe the Sabbath?