Jun 4

Reference links:

2 Samuel 22:21-23:23 Acts 2:1-47 Psalm 122:1-9 Proverbs 16:19-20

Overview of the Books of Samuel Overview of the Acts of the Apostles Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Oh, we were in the middle of David's song of praise. So... more poetry today. David's exaggerating his virtues a bit though,

I am blameless before God;
I have kept myself from sin.

Ummm, Bathsheba (not to mention mass exterminations, but God seems okay with those)? I mean, okay, there's some poetic license allowed, but this is a bit much.

Also, this bit

Foreign nations cringe before me;
as soon as they hear of me, they submit.

Yeah, maybe before David ran away as soon as his son declared rebellion. As soon as they hear about that, they're going to think David's a wimp.

I also think that David seems to have a lot of faith in God's "everlasting" covenant with him given how picky God ended up being about his covenant with Saul (and the threat or two God has already made to David).

After the poetry, we get to read a description of David's most awesome warriors.

New Testament

During Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down upon a bunch of believers in the form of a flame and gave them the ability to speak other languages. Some people who hear them think it's amazing, others, amusingly, think the speakers are drunk. Peter replies to this criticism by claiming (a) 9am is way too early for people to be drunk and (b) Jesus and stuff.

Peter also claims that David was a prophet. Now, maybe that comes latter in the OT readings, but so far, David has not shown much qualification for being a prophet. A warrior and a leader and a politician, yes, but not a prophet. I guess, though, that if Peter doesn't call him a prophet, he cannot claim words attributed to David as prophecies, and if he cannot pretend the psalms are prophecies, a significant portion of the so called fulfilled prophecies become irrelevant.

The early community of believers would, I believe, be called communistic or socialistic by the modern religious right:

And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

Psalms and Proverbs

A psalm of praise for Jerusalem. I do not remember having had a psalm like this before. Variety!