His Time - Scripture Studies: Psalm 139, Proverbs 2, Joel 2

1. Meditation on the Day’s Psalm

Rev. Jonathan Fisk gives a meditation on the Psalm of the Day, Psalm 139:1-6, 12-14

Psalm 139:1-6, 12-14

Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

139 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
²You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
³You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
⁵You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.

¹²even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

¹³For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.^[a]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.

Footnotes:

Psalm 139:14 Or for I am fearfully set apart

2. Meditation on Proverbs

Rev. Jonathan Fisk gives a meditation on Proverbs 2:10-15

Proverbs 2:10-15

¹⁰for wisdom will come into your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
¹¹discretion will watch over you,
    understanding will guard you,
¹²delivering you from the way of evil,
    from men of perverted speech,
¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to walk in the ways of darkness,
¹⁴who rejoice in doing evil
    and delight in the perverseness of evil,
¹⁵men whose paths are crooked,
    and who are devious in their ways.

3. Meditation on the Old Testament Reading

Rev. Jonathan Fisk gives a meditation on the Old Testament Reading, Joel 2:18-32.

Joel 2:18-32.

The Lord Had Pity

¹⁸Then the Lord became jealous for his land
    and had pity on his people.
¹⁹The Lord answered and said to his people,
“Behold, I am sending to you
    grain, wine, and oil,
    and you will be satisfied;
and I will no more make you
    a reproach among the nations.

²⁰“I will remove the northerner far from you,
    and drive him into a parched and desolate land,
his vanguard^[a] into the eastern sea,
    and his rear guard^[b] into the western sea;
the stench and foul smell of him will rise,
    for he has done great things.

²¹“Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!
²²Fear not, you beasts of the field,
    for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit;
    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

²³“Be glad, O children of Zion,
    and rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given the early rain for your vindication;
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵I will restore^[c] to you the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
²⁷You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.

The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit

²⁸^[d] “And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.³²And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.