February 25, 2011 (I Chronicles 6-10, Various Psalms)

These chapters in Chronicles are once again pretty boring, except for this ending:

^10:13 So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He failed to obey the Lord’s command, and he even consulted a medium ¹⁴ instead of asking the Lord for guidance. So the Lord killed him and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

Pretty brutal recap of Saul's life and one that I wouldn't want to have written about me.

Psalm 81 shows not only the faithfulness of God:

⁷ You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you;
      I answered out of the thundercloud
      and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah.

but it also shows how God will let us suffer the consequences if we turn from Him:

⁸ “Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.
      O Israel, if you would only listen to me!
 ⁹ You must never have a foreign god;
      you must not bow down before a false god.
 ¹⁰ For it was I, the Lord your God,
      who rescued you from the land of Egypt.
      Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.

 ¹¹ “But no, my people wouldn’t listen.
      Israel did not want me around.
 ¹² So I let them follow their own stubborn desires,
      living according to their own ideas.
 ¹³ Oh, that my people would listen to me!
      Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
 ¹⁴ How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!
      How soon my hands would be upon their foes!
 ¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him;
      they would be doomed forever.
 ¹⁶ But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
      I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”