The Bible Recap - Day 152 (2 Chronicles 1, Psalm 72) - Year 5

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today, we start the book of Second Chronicles. And just like we talked about with First Chronicles, this account will usually have less detail and sometimes different details than the stories we're reading in the accounts of First and Second Kings. Those books are the DocuSeries, and Chronicles is kind of like the news report. Chronicles almost certainly started out as one book that had to be divided in half because of its length, it wouldn't fit easily onto one scroll.

Today, the news report is recounting Solomon making sacrifices before God. Then God asks him what he wants and he makes a request for wisdom. We saw this in the docu series yesterday, except with a few additional details. Today I notice that God praised Solomon for not asking for the lives of his enemies. This felt like a bit of a callback to his father David, who asked for his enemies' lives on his deathbed.

And at the end of Second Chronicles 1, we see it emphasized again that despite his newly granted wisdom, he starts hoarding wealth and horses against God's commands in Deuteronomy 17. Then we moved over to Psalm 72. First of all, is this Psalm by Solomon like it says at the start or by David like it says at the end? That's super confusing, right? So here's the case for each option. If it's by Solomon, then the first line that says, of Solomon is telling us the author's name. And the last line that says,

the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended, is prophesying David's death. But if it's written by David, then the first line that says, of Solomon is telling us it's about Solomon, not by him. And the last line that says, the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended, is giving us David's final sign-off before he dies. No one really knows, and absolutely zero

about my faith hinges on it, so I'm not sweating it too much. Here's what we do know about this psalm. It's about the blessing on the king, and probably Solomon specifically, regardless who wrote it. God has big plans for this king. This is a prayer for a righteous king, but it's not praise for the king. It's asking God to grant all these good things to the king, a heart for righteousness, a hand

for justice, an eye to see the poor and needy. Scripture attributes all these things to God and ask God to give them to the king. These positions of the heart and mind are granted by God. The Psalmist who was likely a king himself at some point also knows how much the king needs prayer. In verse 15, the psalmist is asking for round the clock prayers for the king. Do you see how humbled this viewpoint is? If he had exalted the king to God's eyes status, this king wouldn't need prayer. He would be elevated above the position of human neediness.

But because the psalmist realizes all good things are given from Yahweh's hand, he knows the King needs God's help and asks the people to intercede on his behalf. He ends with a blessing on God himself and says that God alone does wondrous things. There are so many things we need, and there's no one we can take those needs to accept for God. So many people are afraid to ask God for things, afraid they're bothering him. But God says to pray without ceasing,

he wants us to keep talking to him, to keep asking for things. In part, because it helps us recognize that he is the source of all things, and it also helps us to realize how desperately needy we are. And that ties right into my God's shop for today. Even when people aren't asking him for anything, do you see how much God wants to display his heart of generosity? Solomon wasn't

even asking him for anything, and God shows up and says, Hey, Solomon, you want anything? Then on top of that, God decides to triple the blessing, not just giving Solomon what he asked for, but giving him things he didn't ask for too. God is marked by this kind of abundant generosity. He owns everything and he loves to bless his kids. He seeks out opportunities to bless them even when they don't ask for it. His heart is so kind, I can't get over it. He's where the joy is. He's where the joy is. Tomorrow, we read the Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs. As usual, we've included a link in the show notes for a short video overview.

If you've got seven minutes to spare, it's worth your time to check it out. When you sign up for our monthly newsletter, The Newscap, we'll send you a monthly resource that we've built just for you. This month, we want to send you a document we've created that focuses on the names of God. As you may know, the names of God also tell us a lot about his character and his actions,

and those are the very things we're looking for, whom we look for our God shot every day in the reading. So if you've struggled with that, this tool will be super helpful for you. We'll send you a guide to loads of the names and attributes of God, plus the scripture references where you'll find them. If you want to get this free PDF, all you have to do is go to thebibolrecap.com forward slash names and submit your email address. Then we'll email the resource to you. Be sure to check your spam filter or your promotions and socials tabs in Gmail so you don't miss it.

Again, that's thebibolrecap.com forward slash names or check the show notes for a link. I recently put my Bible knowledge to the test in a game called This or That, and I had a blast doing it, kind of made a fool of myself as well. You can guess along with me as I try to tell the difference between Bible names and Disney characters. Now I've never actually seen a Disney movie, but fortunately I had a lot of help from Pastor Chad of the Prayer Wall. If you want to watch it, text the word Disney to 67101 or click the link in the show notes.

Fortunately, it had a lot of help from Pastor Chad of the Prayer Wall. If you want to watch it, text the word Disney to 67101 or click the link in the show notes.