His Time - Scripture Studies: Psalm 7, Proverbs 3, Ezekiel 33

1. Meditation on the Day’s Psalm

Rev. Jonathan Fisk gives a meditation on the Psalm of the Day, Psalm 7:1-5, 8-11.

Psalm 7:1-5, 8-11

In You Do I Take Refuge

A Shiggaion^[a] of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.

7 O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
²lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

³O Lord my God, if I have done this,
    if there is wrong in my hands,
⁴if I have repaid my friend^[b] with evil
    or plundered my enemy without cause,
⁵let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
    and let him trample my life to the ground
    and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

⁸The Lord judges the peoples;
    judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
    and according to the integrity that is in me.
⁹Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
    and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,^[c]
    O righteous God!
¹⁰My shield is with God,
    who saves the upright in heart.
¹¹God is a righteous judge,
    and a God who feels indignation every day.

Footnotes:

Psalm 7:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
Psalm 7:4 Hebrew the one at peace with me
Psalm 7:9 Hebrew the hearts and kidneys

2. Meditation on Proverbs

Rev. Jonathan Fisk gives a meditation on Proverbs 3:1, 3-6.

Proverbs 3:1, 3-6

Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart

3 My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,

³Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
    bind them around your neck;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴So you will find favor and good success^[a]
    in the sight of God and man.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

Footnotes:

Proverbs 3:4 Or repute

3. Meditation on the Old Testament Reading

Rev. Jonathan Fisk gives a meditation on the Old Testament Reading, Ezekiel 33:1-20.

Ezekiel 33:1-20

Ezekiel Is Israel’s Watchman

33 The word of the Lord came to me: ²“Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman,³and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, ⁴then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. ⁵He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. ⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

⁷“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. ⁸If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.⁹But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

Why Will You Die, Israel?

¹⁰“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ ¹¹Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

¹²“And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness^[a] when he sins. ¹³Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. ¹⁴Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, ¹⁵if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ¹⁶None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.

¹⁷“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just. ¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. ¹⁹And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. ²⁰Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”