Ok, I ‘m still going. I’m starting to slow down at this, kinda like running a race and needing a breather midway….but I’ll get there. Hang on, just let me catch my breath.
Ok, so this is Day 19 of reading the Billy Graham Words of Wisdom Bible Reading Plan. Basically, every day for 31 days, I read about 5 Psalms and 1 Proverbs. Today I read Psalms 91-95 and Proverbs 19. Supposedly reading Psalms will improve your understanding of God while reading Proverbs will improve your relationships with other human beings.
So here goes. I’m just reading these, jotting down some notes and things that stood out. These are just my reflections and ideas on these readings.
Psalm 91 “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
Ok, ok, is this not the best Psalm in the whole dang group?
Because of Covid, I frankly almost got this one dang near memorized. Do you remember when Covid first started a few years back and everyone was so worried? We got called off work for a bit and I did not know whether to lounge happily around in the hammock all day like I was on a well-deserved vacation or to stay locked inside with my mask on at all times, spraying Lysol everywhere.
Gosh, those masks were the worst weren’t they? Remember when it first started and people were scrambling to get masks. People made makeshift masks and sometimes the fabric didn’t tie right and folks had their noses sticking out of them half the time. Then there was the toilet paper scare of 2020 or 2021 or whenever that happened. Can’t wait to tell that one to the grand-kids down the road….
Back in my day, we ran outta toilet paper and had to use leaves and people were fighting over the last roll of John Wayne (rough, and tough, and takes no crap from nobody toilet paper) on the Dollar General shelf. Times were hard back then, kids, real hard.
So the baby boomers, they had the whole peace, love, and hippies vibe. The greatest generation, they fought bravely the Nazis. And us, well we survived the great toilet paper shortage………….crap, literally crap.
I’m so embarrassed.
But anyway, back to Psalm 91, I wonder what this “buckler” thing is? Ok, let’s check this out…..so a buckler is “a small round shield held on the left arm that has handles you put your forearm through.”
Ah, ok, I know what that is. I’ve seen those at the Renaissance Festival and such. Kansas City has the best Renaissance Festival too with giant turkey legs for feasting and so forth. They have a medieval torture museum, gypsy fortune tellers, great games like log throwing and jousting and archery and such, and you can dress in leather corsets and peasant shirts. Huzzah!
Psalm 91 “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night.”
Now I lay me down to sleep…….I used to pray this. I would leave my closet door open as a kid and I never, ever, ever slept with a limb sticking out over my bed for fear of the boogie man under the bed gnawing on it over night.
A few years ago, my husband and I were remodeling an old stone house in the country in Kansas that was built in the 1850s. We slept in the house while tuck-pointing mortar and we would sleep in little cots in the dark. I usually slept with the sleeping bag over my head. Not gonna lie. It’s true.
Some folks told us the place was haunted and honestly, some weird stuff did happen there. My husband would sleep walk there and also sleep talk which we’ve been married for 10 years and he’s never ever done that anywhere else. One night I found him standing in a corner facing the corner. One night I found him standing in the bathroom. And the creepiest of all, one night, I found him outside the house standing in the yard in the dark in his pajamas under the one yard light. Creeped me out. For real.
Psalm 91 “A thousand shall fall at thy side and 10 thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.”
This is a powerful statement. Plagues and pestilence are horrible. I’m not sure which is worse, war or plague.
The night my husband got sick with Covid, he had gone to a friend’s funeral. The next day, we were supposed to pass out candy to little kids for Halloween. He didn’t feel well though and so we poured all the candy into a bowl and set it out at the end of of the walkway for the trick-or-treaters to find.
2 days later he collapsed in the urgent care and was taken by ambulance to the hospital ER. I left the factory to go stand at the hospital ER entrance and just stood there and couldn’t get in. I just remember tears streaming down my face and thinking, well, that’s it. I’ll never see him again. My Dad drove up to the parking lot and couldn’t get near me cause of the Covid but he stayed there in the parking lot waiting with me for a few hours till it got too dark. Then he said, I had to go home to take care of my kids. That really sucked, choosing between your spouse and your kids.
I went home and slept in bed by myself that night wondering about him. 2 days later, the hospital called and said he could go home cause there were not enough beds there and he didn’t need a ventilator. He came home, on the 4th night, his fever ran up to 104 degrees for about 4 hours straight. One more degree and I woulda rushed him back to the hospital. He was hot and cold, hot and cold, hot and cold. His blood sugar was up and down, up and down, up and down. I sat beside him checking his temp about every 15 minutes and then finally it broke, the fever, and he was okay.
He was supposed to self-quarantine but due to the fevers he couldn’t so, him and I, we stayed on one side of the house together and the kids stayed on the other side. Shortly after that, I had Covid too, but had no symptoms really. I pretty much spent 2 weeks watching Schitt’s Creek. The kids never did get Covid.
Psalm 92 “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy Name.”
I think my favorite gospel song is just The Old Rugged Cross. That’s a good one. The Alan Jackson version is very nice. I also like that Vince Gill song, Go Rest High on That Mountain. Amazing Grace is always a good one and growing up Catholic, I liked On Eagle’s Wings or One Bread, One Body or Be Not Afraid.
Psalm 93 “Thy throne is established of old.”
The Earth is supposedly around 4.6 billion years old. America has been around for around 250 some years. The oldest current country, I guess, would be China at around 4,000 of history.
4,000 compared to 4.6 billion……..wow.
Psalm 94 “They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage.”
According to Vatican News, 13 Christians a day in the world are murdered for their beliefs. Every 2 hours, a Christian in the world loses their life due to their faith.
13 x 365 = 4,745 Christians are martyred every year.
13 x 365 x 45 = 213,525 Christians have died for their faith in my lifetime. This is equivalent to the figures of how many people died in the Iraq War from 2003 to 2018.
Psalm 95 “Harden not your heart.”
I had heard this phrase before. I did not know it came from this Psalm.
Proverbs 19 “Luxury is not fitting for a fool.
I watched the movie Babylon. I seriously was depressed for a day afterwards. The main female character sorta plays the fool that attains great success and then through vice and folly, ends up in ruins. The ending where she walks off into the dark alleys was ugh, no good for me. Put me in the dumps.
One of my favorite movies as a kid was The Jerk. It had Steve Martin in it. It’s this guy that achieves great wealth and squanders all of it in a series of bad decisions and over spending.
Proverbs 19 “Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers.”
How true is that? If our father did well saving, we have a better start in life or inheritance of good things. If our father did not save, we struggle with our own debt burdens such as college student loans and paying for weddings and such.
Proverbs 19 “Laziness casts one into a deep sleep.”
Old Chinese Proverb says that if you want something done, you should give it to the busy man. This seems counterintuitive but is true, as the lazy man only becomes more and more lazy while the busy, productive man doesn’t wrestle with inertia and can move faster and quicker like a ball rolling down hill. It’s all about Laws of Physics.
Proverbs 19 “A man of great wrath will suffer punishment.”
Ok, I just finished John Wick 2. We are watching the whole series together for family movie night. So as the series goes along and John Wick becomes more and more deadly and destructive, he goes deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of trouble.
Likewise, in the Bible, you have a story of Saul and David. Saul hated David as the next chosen one and he chased David everywhere. In the end, Saul was the one that died.
Once you get past a point of no return, there’s no going back.
Ok, that’s all I got on the readings for today. Tomorrow I read Day 20: Psalms 96-100 and Proverbs 17 and you are welcome to join me. Thanks!
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