June 6 ▪ Day 157

Scripture Readings

Psalms 13:5–6
Job 9–10
John 20
Proverbs 7

Verse Focus (Psalms 13:5–6)

⁵But I trust in your unfailing love;
     my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶I will sing the LORD’s praise,
     for he has been good to me.

Meditation

Psalms 13:5-6 says, in the NIV, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.” Beautiful words! Even more beautiful, when you consider the context of the psalm. David resolves to trust God even though his present circumstances make him feel like he has been forgotten.

Sometimes it’s easy for us to sing and praise the LORD. We read these verses and our hearts resonate. Yes! Yes, I trust the LORD. Yes, His love is unfailing. Hallelujah for His salvation. Praise God for Jesus Christ. He has been good to me. Amen!

However, other times we are not so ready to praise God. It’s not that God has been any less good to us. But maybe we’re tired. Or sick. Possibly we feel overwhelmed. Or discouraged. And we let the way we feel dictate the way we respond to these words. Or, rather, we let the way we feel keep us from responding to these words.

Emotion is a powerful thing. It can certainly motivate us to do the right thing. But when our feelings abandon us, or direct us in the opposite direction, what then? This is why so many self-help books will tell you that love is an action, a choice, a decision. Love is not a feeling, but your commitment. Well, yes and no. It’s both. Feelings are part of love. But feelings are also fickle. And the feelings must be under-girded by your will to love someone else. When the feelings temporarily fade, it is your will that must dictate how you continue to behave in loving ways. And when the will continues to act, then the feelings return and everything becomes easier again.

It is the same with praising God. Sometimes our emotions will automatically bring us into praise. But other times, it is our decision to move forward that makes the difference. As I read today’s verse, my body is a bit tired and achy and my emotions are a bit flat. But I choose to trust in God’s unfailing love. And I know that God’s love doesn’t fail. I may not feel it experientially at the moment, but He has proven Himself faithful multiple times over the past few years. Likewise, I choose to rejoice in God’s salvation. Thank you, Lord, for sending me Jesus! Thank you for having the Holy Spirit living inside me!

Father God, help us to rejoice and sing even when we don’t feel like doing so. It is likely when we least feel like it that we most need to recognize your power and glory. May your Holy Spirit strengthen and renew me this day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

In Job chapter 9, Job responds to his friend Bildad. He agrees that what Bildad said is correct: God will not reject a blameless man. But then he asks how it is even possible for a man to be blameless before God. There is such a disparity between God and humankind. God is great, powerful, awesome, and unsearchable. Would He even listen to Job? In verse 15, Job says, “Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.” Then in verse 20, Job says, “Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, He would prove me perverse.”

Job sees the distance between God and mankind as too vast. So much so, that God by His own nature must destroy both the blameless and the wicked (v. 22). Job clarifies the problem in verse 32, saying, “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.” Job makes his wish in the final few verses of chapter 9:

³³If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together,
³⁴someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.
³⁵Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

In Job chapter 10, Job continues to speak “in the bitterness of my soul (v. 1).” This is what he would say to God if he could. He would ask God what charges He had against Job. He would ask God if it pleases Him to oppress him. He would ask God if He understands what it means to be mortal. “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?” Job asks in verse 4.

Job declares that God knows that he is not guilty. But no one can rescue Job from God’s hand. Job knows that God made him and formed him. Why does He now destroy him? Why did God give Job life, if all He wanted was to punish him for sin? Job begs God to turn away from him so that he might have some peace before he dies.

In these chapters we see the difficulties inherent in a relationship between created and Creator, between fallen humanity and Holy God. In order for true understanding, true reconciliation, and true intimacy, there is need for a Mediator. These chapters cry out for the Messiah. But not a Messiah as the Jews thought that he would be; no, only a Messiah like Jesus will serve: one who is both fully human and fully God. In Jesus we have the Mediator that Job longed for.

In John chapter 20, we read of Jesus’ resurrection and the first witnesses. Mary Magdalene and some other women go early to the tomb on the first day of the week in order to anoint Jesus’ body with burial spices. John’s gospel doesn’t mention these other women directly (although the other gospels do), but Mary refers to her companions when she runs to the disciples and to tell them that the tomb is empty, saying, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him (v. 2).”

Peter and John — here referred to simply as the “other disciple” — run to the tomb and find the burial linens, with the head cloth separated from the rest. When John sees the empty tomb and the abandoned burial cloth, verse 8 tells us that he “believed,” even though neither Peter nor John yet understood from the Scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead (v. 9). But they leave the tomb and return to their lodgings.

Mary, meanwhile, is weeping. She sees two angels inside the tomb — and apparently recognizes that they are angels. They ask, in verse 13, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She refers to the missing body. Then Mary sees Jesus, but does not recognize him. She thinks he is the gardener. Jesus speaks to her, asking in verse 15 the same question the angels asked. “Woman, why are you weeping?” He goes on to ask a second question, “Whom are you seeking?” Mary asks the “gardener” to tell her where they have put the body, so that she may retrieve it. It is when Jesus says her name that Mary finally recognizes him, and thus she becomes the first witness to the Resurrection.

This encounter is fascinating in many respects. Mary sees the angels and recognizes that they are more than human. But she sees Jesus and fails to recognize him — yet, she considers him completely human and thinks he must be the gardener. Recently, I read a devotional that pointed out how significant it is that Mary saw Jesus as a gardener. We expect that one would see glory and majesty in beholding the risen Jesus. And yet Mary saw him as a laborer and a worker. God reveals Himself not by splendor, but as One who works. That Jesus seemed a gardener hearkens back to the Garden of Eden, and brings us full circle from the Fall to the moment that mankind is redeemed through Jesus.

I also love that a woman was the first one who saw the risen Jesus. For a society that was still heavily patriarchal, it is significant that God chose a woman to be the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection. It elevates the position of women, and shows that women are very much a part of God’s kingdom and plans.

Mary’s grief was likely another reason why she was chosen to be the first witness. Certainly, all the disciples grieved. But for Mary the missing body was like the straw that broke the camel’s back — it was too much on top of the crucifixion. Now, she couldn’t even honor Jesus in his death. She couldn’t pay her respects. She couldn’t say goodbye. And so she wept.

Jesus appears to the disciples two times in chapter 20 — both times, he appears in their midst, even though the doors had been locked. Hmmmmm. Makes you wonder if the ability to go through locked doors is divine power, or if there might be some interesting properties to Resurrection bodies…. So, even if Jesus looks very ordinary, he clearly is not.

I love this story of Doubting Thomas. Don’t we all? He has heard the testimony of Mary, and the other disciples, and yet he refuses to believe unless he can see and touch for himself. It’s interesting that Jesus did show the other disciples his hands and his side the first time he appeared (v. 20). We sometimes mock Thomas for that need to experience the physical proof of Jesus’ identity, and yet it was part of how Jesus revealed himself to the other disciples.

Jesus says, in verse 29, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” On the one hand, we feel good because we know Jesus is talking about us. But, on the other hand, who hasn’t felt a little jealous of the New Testament believers who got to walk and talk with Jesus directly? Do we really believe that we are more blessed because we have believed without seeing? Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” And perhaps therein is the key to what Jesus is telling us. There is a strength to our faith. We have the Holy Spirit inside us. And we truly are blessed because we are able to believe even though we do not live when Jesus walked freely on the earth.

In Proverbs 7, Solomon warns us yet again to obey his commands and heed his instructions. We need to cleave to wisdom, as it will protect us from the “forbidden woman (v. 5)” — that is, the adulteress. And we read a story of seduction — there is a young, foolish man who is tempted by such a forbidden woman.

There are some interesting features in this story of the forbidden relationship. Verse 14 always seems so ironic. The adulteress boasts of fulfilling her religious duties and seems to have no concept that her behavior displeases God. She is tempting the young man with the meat of her peace offering; presumably, the Israelites did not eat meat every day and to have the meat from a peace offering was a kind of feast. She assures him that there is no danger — her husband is far away and won’t be back for days.

Verse 22 tells us that the young man “follows her impulsively” — but it is like “an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding toward a trap.” The word “impulsively” strikes me. It is not premeditated, this indiscretion. At least not wholly premeditated — he was, after all, hanging about her house. He put himself in a position to be tempted and to give in to that temptation. But the decision to fall was sudden. He gave in to his feelings and did not consider reason. But the Scripture tells us that this is a huge mistake. “He does not know that it will cost him his life,” says verse 23. Verse 27 repeats the warning, saying, “Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.”

It is interesting to think about the source of this wisdom. Solomon is the one who writes this chapter. He had the evidence of his father David to provide some perspective; after all, his own parents’ relationship began as a forbidden relationship. But we also know, from the story of Solomon’s own life, that women were one of his downfalls. Solomon is perhaps speaking from his own bitter experience. On the one hand, we want to ignore the advice of someone who is basically saying, “Don’t do what I did” — but, on the other hand, we know that we would give anything to keep our loved ones from making the same terrible mistakes we have made in life. (And God obviously believes what Solomon is telling us is important, otherwise this would never have become part of our Scripture!)

However, I think it would be a mistake to think of Proverbs 7 only in terms of forbidden sexual relationships. This chapter is teaching us about temptation in general. Wisdom is what protects us from making wrong choices. If we hang about in the vicinity of what tempts us, it will not be surprising if we suddenly and impulsively fall. The first step is to stay away from the people and the situations that cause us to want to do what we should not. The chapter may also be teaching us that the young are particularly susceptible to temptation — perhaps because they have not yet been burned. But wisdom protects the young as much as it protects those who are older — more experienced — and wiser. If we would pay attention to our Father’s teachings, we might not need to learn things the hard way.

Father God, thank you for everything that your Scripture teaches us. Thank you for wisdom, and for the protection that it gives. May we seek wisdom earnestly; may we renew our hearts daily through your Word and Presence. Thank you for allowing Mary to be the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection. Thank you for revealing yourself as One who works, and One who tends to the earth. Most especially, thank you for answering the request of Job’s heart to have someone who can be a Mediator for us. Jesus understands what it is to be human. Now we know that that you truly understand our frailty. You have provided a way out from our sinfulness. Thank you for your love and your grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.