Reading: Psalm 7-9

QUESTIONS

Psalm 7:

  • How does David’s plea for divine protection in verses 1-2 reflect his relationship with God?
  • Prayerfully reflect on your relationship with God and ask Him to enable you to trust Him more so that you will look to Him to be your refuge and shield in times of trouble.

Psalm 8:

  • How does the apparent insignificance of humans contrast with the honor and glory God bestows upon them?
  • Take a moment to praise God for the majesty of His creation and the glory He has bestowed on us as portrayed in Psalm 8.

Psalm 9:

  • What does it mean that God is a stronghold for the oppressed?
  • How does David express his thanksgiving to God? Spend some time considering and rejoicing in your salvation and the mercy that God has shown you.
DEVOTION

Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) received a midshipman commission into the US Navy in 1825. He spent over a decade traveling the world. While on leave he suffered a leg injury which prevented him from returning to sea duty. During his recovery his attention was riveted to Psalm 8 and verse 8b, “whatever passes through the paths of the sea.”

If there were paths in the sea, Maury fashioned his life to find them. He began to study ships’ logs and was assigned to what became the US Naval Observatory and became known worldwide as the “Pathfinder of the Seas.” His charts of winds and currents reduced voyages by days. 

He later wrote, ““I have been blamed by men of science, both in this country and in England, for quoting the Bible in confirmation of the doctrines of physical geography. The Bible, they say, was not written for scientific purposes, and is therefore of no authority in matters of science. I beg pardon! The Bible is authority for everything it touches….The agents concerned in the physical economy of our planet are ministers of His who made both it and the Bible.

The records which He has chosen to make through the agency of these ministers of His upon the crust of the earth are as true as the records which, by the hands of His prophets and servants, He has been pleased to make in the Book of Life. They are both true; and when your men of science, with vain and hasty conceit, announce the discovery of disagreement between them, rely upon it the fault is not with the Witness or His records, but with the ‘worm’ who essays to interpret evidence which he does not understand.”

– Jim Yoder