The subheading in Leviticus 20 is “Punishments for Disobedience.” There’s a long list of disobedient acts, and the punishment in many cases is death, rejection, or loss. The punishment for sin has always been death, rejection, and loss.
The things he warns against–a defilement of life, of spirit, of body and of mind. He values life, spirit, body, and mind; and he wants (us) to value them too.
7 So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the Lord who makes you holy.
24 But I have promised you, ‘You will possess their land because I will give it to you as your possession—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from all other people.
26 You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own. (Leviticus 20:7-8, 24, 26, NLT)
David’s psalm is worship, a declaration of trust. The whole of it, an acknowledgment of God’s goodness.
1 O Lord, I give my life to you.
2 I trust in you, my God! (Psalm 25:1-2, NLT)
David worships God for his mercy, compassion, righteousness, leadership, and unfailing love. God is good. God is trustworthy.
Ecclesiastes tells of time. When read with a lens of God’s goodness and trustworthiness, I can see his hand in all things. He is in control.
10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. 15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again. (Ecclesiastes 3:10-15, NLT)
No one who trusts in you, Lord, will ever be disgraced.
Thank you, Lord, for loving me enough to choose me, for loving me so much to guide me and teach me and show me the way. You did not put me in this world to figure it out on my own. I put my hope in you.
Courtney (66books365)
Sixty-six books in a year 