Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Psalm 112:4
Light shines in the darkness for the godly. They are generous, compassionate and righteous.
I will never forget my visit to Ruby. She was dying and knew that her end was very near. It was late in the afternoon when I went to her cottage and daylight was fading, but my overwhelming memory of that visit is of her radiant smile. On paper, the situation seemed so sad and hopeless, but Ruby didn’t see it that way. She knew God as a friend and was looking to the future with genuine excitement because she knew that He could be trusted. For Ruby, the light still shone.
Over the years, I have had the privilege of meeting many people whose life circumstances looked dark and forbidding, but whose faith in God meant that they simply didn’t see it that way. I think of prisoners, people with disabilities, those who had been thrown out of their communities because of their Christian faith and others who, through no fault of their own, were facing financial ruin. In each of their lives, the light was shining. Humanly speaking, it was unrelieved darkness, but because of their faith in God, a brilliant light shone that nothing could extinguish.
This whole psalm is a wonderful description of the person who has centred their life on God. They are generous and kind and are able to live their life with confidence because of their faith. They don’t spend their time fearing bad news because “they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. They are confident and fearless” (Psalm 112:7-8). The psalmist doesn’t deny the reality of life’s problems and threats. He doesn’t for a moment suggest that there is no darkness in the world. His point is that the godly person is able to see the light shining whatever the circumstances, and who wouldn’t want to be like that?
Question
In whose life have you seen light shining in the darkness?
Prayer
Lord God, I thank You that Your light shines even in the darkest of situations. Amen

Psalm 111:1-2
Praise the LORD! I will thank the LORD with all my heart as I meet with his godly people. How amazing are the deeds of the LORD! All who delight in him should ponder them.
It is, of course, possible to praise God anywhere, but there is something incredibly precious about getting together with others to worship Him, and it is wonderful to think of God’s people doing that for thousands of years. Whether it is in a small remote village chapel, a vast cathedral or a tent, the experience of worshipping God with other people is inspiring, encouraging and unifying.
The psalmist encourages worshippers to think about what God has done. When we worship God, we need to take time to reflect carefully on what He has done in creation and throughout history. I was interested to learn that verse 2 was placed over the entrance to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, where some of the most important scientific discoveries have been made. Researching and pondering are important activities. We need to find space to explore, to see things in new ways and to allow God to open up new truths to us.
These Bible notes have been written to help us all to ponder. It’s so easy for us to hurtle into our days without much reflection. We can get into a predictable rhythm of life and become so focused on the tasks in front of us that we have no time to reflect at all. It’s good to set aside a definite time in the day when we can listen to God and reflect on Him. That might be while walking the dog, while travelling to work or in the peace of our homes. It really doesn’t matter where it happens, but we all need to carve out time when we can stand back from life and allow God to speak with us. Pondering is probably the most important thing we can do in the whole day.
Question
Where do you find the time and space to ponder?
Prayer
God our Father, I worship You, for You are so great. Help me to find time to worship You and to reflect on all that You have done. Amen

Psalm 108:1-2
My heart is confident in you, O God; no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart! Wake up, lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song.
Isn’t it wonderful when you can say you are totally confident about someone? Perhaps it’s your doctor, dentist, plumber or friend. Without hesitation, you can commend them to someone else. You know they will never let anyone down. The reality, of course, is that they are human and, however wonderful they might be, they might become sick, and they might forget. You cannot be 100% certain that they will be reliable. However, our confidence in God is wonderfully different. The psalmist was so confident of God that he burst into song! He knew God would never let anyone down, so he grabbed every instrument in sight and decided to wake up the day with his song.
Martin Luther was a man who showed his confidence in God by courageously standing up against the Church authorities of the time. It would have been so much easier to have kept quiet, but the idea of buying indulgences was abhorrent to him. If someone bought an indulgence to support the rebuilding of the St Paul’s Basilica in Rome, it was said that their sins would be forgiven. Luther would have none of it. The God he knew graciously forgave those who came to Him by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote: “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times.”
The apostle Paul often spoke of his total confidence in God. That was why he was willing to take such extreme risks in his ministry. He wrote to the church in Rome: “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the power of hell can separate us from God’s love” (Romans 8:38).
If we are to stand strongly for God in a society which largely rejects Him, we too need to have total confidence in Him. The psalmist and Paul would encourage us to have just that.
Question
Do you have total confidence in God?
Prayer
Lord God our Father, I thank You that I can be certain of Your love and goodness for time and eternity. Amen

Psalm 107:1-3
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Has the LORD redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies. For he has gathered the exiles from many lands, from east and west, from north and south.
This psalm celebrates the people’s return after the exile. This was a massive moment in national life, and the psalmist is clear that it was entirely because of God’s consistent faithfulness. In the psalm, he looks back through different chapters in the life of God’s people and records the fact that, despite repeated human failings, God has not given up on them. Time after time, they had rejected His guidance and gone their own way, but God had not abandoned them. The final verse of the psalm sums up the situation beautifully: “Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord” (Psalm 107:43).
Our own personal stories are not so very different from this. As we look back through our lives, there will have been times when we have been totally unaware of God’s presence, and others when we have deliberately gone our own way. There have been decisions that we have made that make us wince with embarrassment now. But, through it all, God has been faithful, and now we need to speak out. We need to learn the lessons of our own personal history and use them as a springboard for our worship.
The return from exile was not a neat historical event. It was supremely messy and stretched over a long period of time. When the people returned to their homeland, they were not welcomed with open arms, and it took a long time to reconstruct the city of Jerusalem and restore the worship of the temple. That’s our life too. There are no quick and easy solutions to the challenges of life but, through it all, God is faithful, and His love can be entirely relied upon. Through all the messiness of life, we need to make sure we keep our eyes fixed on God and keep singing our songs of worship.
Question
What is the main reason that you want to praise God today?
Prayer
Loving Father, thank You that You are always faithful and loving. Help me to keep praising You amid all the twists and turns of life’s journey. Amen

Exodus 34:9
[Moses said:] “O Lord, if it is true that I have found favour with you, then please travel with us. Yes, this is a stubborn and rebellious people, but please forgive our iniquity and our sins. Claim us as your own special possession.”
What an incredible job Moses had! The people had rebelled against God in the most dramatic way. They’d known that Moses had gone up Mount Sinai to meet with God, but they’d become fed up with waiting, so they had constructed a new god of their own who they’d then worshipped with great enthusiasm. To describe Moses as disappointed would be a huge understatement. He must have been gutted, and who would have blamed him if he’d decided to throw in the towel? Who would want to be the leader of such a rude and rebellious people? But Moses hung in there because he knew the nature of his God.
In verses 6-7, the Lord revealed Himself as a God of compassion and mercy who is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness, lavishing unfailing love to a thousand generations. Moses’ strength lay in the fact that he knew the nature of his God and was confident that, tough as it would be, he could lead the people so long as he knew that God Himself was travelling with them.
I am often struck by the huge challenges that people have to cope with in life. Betrayal, failure, illness, disappointment and death are shared out unequally. Life is totally unpredictable, which means we all need, like Moses, to be clear about the nature of God so that we are equipped to face up to whatever challenges might be thrown at us. I love the confidence of the apostle Paul, who asked the question: “If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:31-32). Paul could so easily have looked at the problems surrounding him and given up, but he, like Moses, kept his eye on the God who was travelling with him, and remained strong.
Question
What is it about God that gives you strength as you look to the future?
Prayer
Loving God, I thank You that I can live with confidence because You are always with me, whatever happens. Amen