June 13 ▪ Day 164

Scripture Readings

Psalms 25:5
Job 23–24
Titus 1–3
Proverbs 14

Verse Focus (Psalms 25:5)

Guide me in your truth and teach me,
     for you are God my Savior,
     and my hope is in you all day long.

Meditation

Our verse focus today, Psalms 25:5, is like the perfect morning prayer — a wonderful way to start your day. “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Yes, amen!

In my Bible Study group, we have been studying prayer for the past year. And one thing we have learned is that part of how prayer should start is by reminding you who you are in relation to God. This is one reason why the Lord’s Prayer is so effective — because, as we begin, we are reminded that God is our Father; He is holy and powerful — and thus we can rest in His strength. This little verse does the same thing. It reminds us that God is the one who saves us. We turn to Him for His grace and for His guidance. We put ourselves in the position of supplicants. We open ourselves to the truth. We desire to learn. Even more, we understand that this will be the way we relate to God all throughout the day.

It’s been a tough week for me as I’ve been unaccountably tired for days now. I’m not sick, and I don’t have an explanation for why I’m so weary. But I’ve been struggling. This verse is what I’m going to hang on to today. “My hope is in you all day long.” I may not feel like I’ve got the resources to do the things that are on my list today, but it doesn’t matter. I just need to cry out to God for strength — every time my brain says, “Oh, I’m so tired,” I plan to counter that with “My hope is in you all day long.” May His grace be with all of us this day!

Father God, thank you for your Scripture. Thank you that your word is powerful. Please open my eyes today; allow me to be able to see and articulate your truth. Grant me your wisdom and your strength throughout this day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Yesterday in our reading of Job 22, Eliphaz accused Job of oppressing the poor and assuming that God could not see his iniquity. He urged Job to repent of his evil, reminding Job that God saves the humble. Today, we read Job’s reply in chapters 23 and 24. In chapter 23, Job wishes that he knew where he might find God. He longs to come before God’s throne — he would plead his case; God would listen. Job’s great desire is to understand why God has been treating him as He has.

But God is not easily found. If Job goes east or west, north or south — he does not find God, nor can he perceive Him. Yet Job declares, in verse 10, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Job speaks of how he has followed God’s commands. “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread,” Job says in verse 12.

But God is sovereign — “unchangeable (v. 13).” What He purposes, He does. No one can turn God back from doing whatever He plans to do. And when Job considers his recent calamities, and considers the nature of God’s sovereignty, he is terrified. Even though Job is convinced of his own integrity and convinced that God will recognize his righteousness after He has finished testing Job, and even though Job longs to come before God’s throne to sort this out — Job dreads coming into God’s presence.

In chapter 24, Job meditates on the enigma of God’s justice. In verse 1, Job asks why God does not set specific times of judgment. Why do the righteous not see God dispensing justice on the wicked? There are those who steal and take advantage of widows and orphans. The poor are not taken care of, but must work for the wicked without proper compensation. Those who are wounded cry out to God for help, and yet, as Job says in verse 12, “God charges no one with wrong.”

Job’s friends have been saying that God punishes the wicked during their mortal lives; they are forgotten and their wickedness is broken. Job disagrees somewhat. God does punish the wicked, but it doesn’t happen necessarily while they are living. They may even be exalted in life, having prosperity and security. But the wicked are soon gone. They — and everyone — go down to the grave. Job concludes by saying in verse 25, “If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

It is remarkable how much Job’s words continue to resonate for us today, even though our situation is considerably different. There was no tabernacle or temple when Job lived; the priesthood did not exist. There was no mercy seat where Job could go and present his case. Jesus had not come; the Holy Spirit was not freely available. He had no mediator. Yet even though we do have those things, God is still Spirit and we sometimes have as much difficulty perceiving Him as Job did. We know that God will dispense justice one day, but we also do not see clear rebukes of wickedness. We also struggle to understand how justice can be met when we are in the grave.

Today we read Paul’s letter to Titus. Like 1 and 2 Timothy, this is another pastoral letter to one of Paul’s former disciples. Titus was a Greek convert, and may have been one of Paul’s secretaries and interpreters. He is mentioned several times in the letter of 2 Corinthians. Titus also accompanied Paul to the Council of Jerusalem in about 50 AD (the council where it was decided that Gentiles would not need to follow the Mosaic law). In this letter, Paul refers to leaving Titus in Crete to help set the church in order by appointing elders for the congregations on the island of Crete, and possibly in all of Greece. Most assume that this letter was written after Paul was released from prison in Rome — perhaps around 65 or 66 AD.

Like the situation Timothy faced in Ephesus, Titus also faces false teachers who are corrupting the gospel message. Even though the Council of Jerusalem made its decree some 15 years earlier, the “circumcision party (1:10)” continues to tell believers that they must become circumcised and keep to Jewish dietary restrictions.
Paul’s letter to Titus is very similar to 1 Timothy. Paul articulates the qualities that church leaders should have, again stressing the need for them to be “above reproach (1:7).” Not only must they hold firmly to the word as taught, but they must be able to teach sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict such sound doctrine (1:9). Paul exhorts Titus to rebuke those of the circumcision party “sharply, that they may be sound in the faith (1:13).” Although Paul writes of people who “profess to know God, but… deny him by their works (1:16),” he clearly believes that there are genuine albeit misguided believers among the circumcision party. The goal is to restore sound doctrine for all the churches in Crete.

For Paul, sound doctrine is not just what you believe, but how you behave. He counsels Titus to teach self-control and good behavior to the congregants “so that the word of God may not be reviled (2:5).” This includes temperance and kindness. He tells slaves that they should not be argumentative, nor should they steal from their masters, but rather they should show that they can be trusted so that “in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive (2:10).”

For it is God’s grace that teaches us to “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives (2:12).” Such upright lives will include being “submissive to rulers and authorities (3:1),” as well as showing “perfect courtesy toward all people (3:2).” The ability to live an upright life comes from the mercy of God in His gift of the Holy Spirit (3:5). It is because of this that we are to “devote” ourselves to “good works” (3:8). Paul repeats this idea at the close of the letter (3:14). We are to be fruitful for God through our good works.

In some ways, I find this letter a bit startling. In many of his letters, Paul labored to correct misunderstandings about good works. Many thought of their good works as a means of establishing their own righteousness before God; Paul had to explain that our righteousness is a gift of grace through Christ Jesus. Good works result from the free gift of grace; they are not what we do to earn merit from God. I suppose the difference between this letter and the others is that Paul knew that Titus already understood this. He did not have to go into a lengthy explanation to convince Titus; Paul only needed to remind Titus that — as a church leader — his role was to encourage the believers in doing good works.

Proverbs 14 should contain some familiar proverbs since we looked at a few of these verses back in March. One of my favorites, of course, is Proverbs 14:23: “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”

One proverb that we did not look at was the very first one in this chapter. “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” I always feel a bit of a twinge when I read this proverb. I cannot help but wonder in what ways I am being foolish and self-destructive. It is a question worth considering. However, I suspect I may be hearing the voice of the Accuser more than I should; rarely does it occur to me to count the ways that I am building my house through wisdom.

As I re-read the chapter today, verse 14 stood out to me. Proverbs 14:14 says, in the ESV, “The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.” One of the things Proverbs teaches us is that our actions do have consequences. What we believe and what we do will bear fruit — good fruit, or bad fruit. The choice is up to us.

Father God, we pray for your Holy Spirit to revitalize and renew us so that we might make good choices and bear good fruit for God. Thank you that in Christ Jesus you have prepared a way for us to live upright and godly lives. Help us to be kind and courteous, and to devote ourselves to doing good works. I’m so grateful we live in a time when we have Jesus as our Advocate. We are never left alone, or as orphans. Thank you for your grace. In Jesus, Amen.