Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Psalm 133:1-2
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe.
It’s always inspiring to see unity at work. Whatever the organisation, it is encouraging to see a group of people working effectively and happily together. Whether it’s a football team, a school, business, family or church, it is a blessing to see everyone working together in harmony. The thought of anointing oil being poured over a person sounds quite sticky and messy to me, but it’s clearly intended as a picture of generous blessing. As the oil falls down, everyone can smell the beautiful fragrance and share in the joy of unity. Whatever way you look at it, unity is something to be celebrated.
The beauty of unity should inspire us all and encourage us to do two things. Firstly, we need to receive the unity that God longs to give us and which we discover as we live our lives more closely to Him. Then, secondly, we need to put in the hard work of looking after that precious gift. The apostle Paul wrote: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Day by day, we need to look for ways of promoting unity, through our prayers, love, encouragement and kindness. It’s hard work, but the results are beautiful and inspiring for all to see.
Question
What can you do to promote unity in your church and family?
Prayer
Loving God, thank you for the gift of unity. Help me to go out of my way to maintain and strengthen unity today. Amen

Psalm 132:3-5
[David vowed:] “I will not enter my house or go to my bed, I will allow no sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
When David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel, it was a major political event. However, for him it was far more than a political moment. David saw the city as a spiritual centre for the nation. This would be the place where people would come to worship, so the first need was to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. When this happened, David was so exuberantly joyful that he famously danced before the Lord with all his might. Relocating the ark was the first step towards the building of the temple. This didn’t happen during David’s lifetime, but he went to great lengths to ensure that all the resources were brought together so his son Solomon could oversee the building of the temple.
David was totally committed to the temple project because of his devotion to the Lord. Towards the end of his reign, David organised phenomenal quantities of metal and wood to be brought together for the temple construction. He himself contributed 102 tonnes of gold and 238 tonnes of silver. The value of this in today’s money would be well over a billion pounds!
We won’t be invited to build a temple, but we need to learn from David’s single-minded devotion to God. Serving God faithfully needs to be our priority and our all-consuming passion.
Question
What do you learn from David’s devotion to God?
Prayer
Lord God, help me to focus more of my energies on serving You day by day. Amen

Psalm 131:1-2
My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.
CH Spurgeon, the great Victorian Baptist preacher, commented that this is “one of the shortest psalms to read but one of the longest to learn”. Learning to be humble is so tough that anyone who claims to have achieved it has a very long way to go! Humility is a wonderful and exciting quality in a person because the truly humble person knows where they stand before God. They recognise His greatness and power and understand that they are privileged to be His servant. They don’t exaggerate their own importance and are eager to see everything that is best in those around them.
I don’t believe King David was suggesting that the humble person avoids difficult issues. Far from it, the humble person is more likely to take on the big challenges. It is the arrogant person who falls flat on their face when they take on great challenges in their own strength and fail. David says that he has become like a weaned child. At the time, children were weaned at about the age of three. It’s as if David was saying that he was like a toddler in his relationship with God. He wasn’t a baby any longer, but he was still continually and humbly dependent on God. And that’s the life God wants for each one of us.
Question
From whom have you learned most about humility?
Prayer
Loving God, teach me what it means to be humble and to live like a weaned child. Amen

Psalm 130:3-4
If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
One day in 1738, John Wesley reluctantly attended a Christian meeting In Aldersgate Street, London. He was feeling thoroughly depressed, but during the meeting someone read from Martin Luther’s Preface to the letter of St Paul to the Romans and Wesley felt that his heart was “strangely warmed”. He saw this as the moment when he truly trusted in Christ alone. What is less well known is that, later that same day, Wesley went to St Paul’s Cathedral where he was deeply moved by this particular psalm. It perfectly expressed his experience of salvation through the forgiveness of his sins.
The psalmist speaks of the completeness of God’s forgiveness. He doesn’t keep a record of our sins. They are wiped out. When someone has done you wrong, the hardest part is often to forget what has happened, but that’s what God does. He chooses to erase our sins completely from His memory.
The psalmist knew that his life was totally distorted by sin. He couldn’t think of standing in God’s presence. But now the door was open to a new life in which he could confidently stand before God and serve Him. This message of forgiveness comes into sharpest focus in the New Testament because it was precisely why Jesus died upon the cross. Through Jesus taking the full weight of our sin upon Himself, He is able to offer us new life.
Question
How do you respond to the fact that God is willing to forgive and forget all your sins?
Prayer
Loving God, thank you for Your willingness to set me free from my sins. Amen

Acts 28:30-31
For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ – with all boldness and without hindrance!
Paul’s journey to Rome was an amazing adventure. It was long and difficult, and during it, he and his companions survived a shipwreck. We would love to know far more details but now, in these final verses of Acts, we find Paul settled into a house in Rome. We are informed that he was guarded by a soldier, so he was being kept under what we would normally call house arrest. However, he was clearly given considerable freedom and was able to continue his ministry. There was no keeping Paul down!
The book of Acts began with a small, frightened and confused group of Jesus followers waiting in Jerusalem. Jesus gave them instructions to take the good news to the ends of the earth, which seemed impossible at the time. The 28 chapters of this amazing book tell us how it became a reality. Now, at last, we find Paul in the great city of Rome, at the heart of the Roman empire.
This should be a great encouragement to us all. There were many times of enormous difficulty and discouragement along the way, but God was at work and His word was fulfilled. As we face our own struggles and problems, we can be confident that God’s Holy Spirit will strengthen us and direct us.
Question
What encouragement do you take personally from the book of Acts?
Prayer
Lord God, in my weakness fill me with the power and wisdom of Your Holy Spirit today. Amen