the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Deuteronomy 28:33-53; Deuteronomy 29:1
"Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God" (Psalms 16:4). This verse (which prophetically applies to the worship of the Antichrist) can serve as a title for vv. 15-68 of our chapter. The person who is speaking in Psalms 16 is Christ who, in contrast to Israel, never ceased to trust in God and to set the Lord before Him. He could always count on His God to preserve Him, to maintain His lot so that He would not be moved (Psalms 16:1; Psalms 16:5; Psalms 16:8). He is our example in the path of faith. But God also has to show us the opposite example and its tragic consequences. The dreadful threat of v. 53 literally came to pass in Israel’s history (2 Kings 6:29). As for their liberty, the people practically lost that from the time of their transportation to Babylon.
We are invited to "serve the LORD with gladness" in Psalms 100:2. To be precise, Israel did not serve her God "with joyfulness and with gladness of heart" (v. 47), exposing herself instead to suffering the iron yoke of her enemies. Morally it is still the same today. By refusing to serve the Lord we practically put ourselves back under bondage to Satan and sin (John 8:34). May God teach us to serve Him gladly, imitating the One who delighted to do His will! (Psalms 40:8).
