Sunday, March 3rd: Leviticus 27:14 - Numbers 1:54, Mark 11:1-26, Psalm 46:1-11, Proverbs 10:23 Tammy

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Leviticus 27:14 - Numbers 1:54, Mark 11:1-26, Psalm 46:1-11, Proverbs 10:23

Psalm 46

For the choir director: A song of the descendants of Korah, to be sung by soprano voices.[a]

1 God is our refuge and strength,
    always ready to help in times of trouble.
2 So we will not fear when earthquakes come
    and the mountains crumble into the sea.
3 Let the oceans roar and foam.    Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! 

I've always loved this psalm, and it is one that I've memorized in the past (though don't ask me to recite it anymore!).

I read recently, and agree, that it is significant that the descendants of Korah wrote this psalm.  Korah was swallowed up in the earth because of his sin, but the sons of Korah did not die, and their story is a beautiful picture of redemption, grace and forgiveness.  The sons of Korah received their positions back, and more!  Further in Numbers, we see the sons of Korah given greater responsibility by King David, and they also become poets, writing several of the Psalms, including Psalm 46.

This commentary says .....
Every so often these psalms of Korah’s sons take an autobiographical turn that leaves me breathless with wonder at the profound gratitude rising from the image itself. I discovered one of these treasures just recently. I was reflecting on Psalm 46, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way…”

A strong metaphor…for anyone except the sons of Korah. For them, the earth actually once had given way. The earth moved so decisively that it swallowed up their entire disaffected family. In writing Psalm 46, might they have been living in the memory of their familial rescue? In some dramatic fashion that remains veiled in this family’s history, God had been their refuge and strength on a day when the earth really did open up. So now, when I hear the Sons of Korah say there is no cause to fear—even in the midst of unprecedented human trauma—I listen with different ears.

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage:  Numbers 2:1-3:51, Mark 11:27-12:17, Psalm 47:1-9, Proverbs 10:24-25