Category Archives: 1 Chronicles

¹⁰ Then David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly:

“O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may you be praised forever and ever! ¹¹ Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. ¹² Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.

¹³ “O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! ¹⁴ But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us! ¹⁵ We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.

¹⁶ “O Lord our God, even this material we have gathered to build a Temple to honor your holy name comes from you! It all belongs to you! ¹⁷ I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there. You know I have done all this with good motives, and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously.

¹⁸ “O Lord, the God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make your people always want to obey you. See to it that their love for you never changes. ¹⁹ Give my son Solomon the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, laws, and decrees, and to do everything necessary to build this Temple, for which I have made these preparations.”

²⁰ Then David said to the whole assembly, “Give praise to the Lord your God!” And the entire assembly praised the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and they bowed low and knelt before the Lord and the king.

1 Chronicles 29:10-20

Dear God, the thought that came to my mind as I read this story this morning was how “the people” need leadership. In this case, they needed David to lead them. To lead them to you. To lead them in worship. In sacrifice. They could not and would not have gotten there on their own. They needed David. Thankfully, David knew enough to really love and adore you. To worship you. And then the importance of getting his countrymen to worship you as well.

I have people in my life who look to me for leadership, particularly in my work. I’m in a position to lead there. But there are also some community groups who look to me as well. Not that I am at the top of the food chain in those groups, but I certainly have a leadership role. Oh, how I want to do it well and for your glory. How I want to bring others into worship of you through my life.

Father, help me to lead at work today. Help me to reach out and love my family today. Help me to be the man you want and need me to be for your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And if you want to inspire me through the leadership of someone else, please open my eyes to hear your voice and see your actions in them. Use them to guide me into the middle of your heart. I want to know you better, Lord.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

⁷ On that day David gave to Asaph and his fellow Levites this song of thanksgiving to the Lord:

⁸ Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
    Let the whole world know what he has done.

1 Chronicles 16:7-8

Dear God, this is the verse of the day for Bible Gateway, but it also works for where my heart is this morning. I just want to worship. This passage is talking about getting the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, and David leading the way with singing to you. Yes, I want to sing to you this morning. I want to worship you. I want to walk into this day–from the beginning–with faith in your support and provision.

Father, you really do not fail me. I’ve been disappointed in my life, to be sure. Things have gone wrong that I don’t understand. But all children get disappointed when their parents do something that might be the right thing, or might even be out of their parents’ control, but it doesn’t work out the way the child wants. That’s how I feel sometimes. The question is, do I take that disappointment, throw a tantrum, throw myself on the ground and kick and scream, or do I trust you and follow you?

Oh, my Father. Oh, my Jesus. Oh, my Holy Spirit. Triune God, please be with me today. Help me to carry you into this day. Help me to not only lead others in our work, but also to you. Help us to love you. Help my coworkers to discover you in a new way through my influence in their lives. Influence them through me, Holy Spirit. Move in our building. Move in my coworkers who are sick. Provide for us today. Give us, this day, our daily bread.

I pray all of this in the name of Jesus,

Amen

¹⁰ Then David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly:

“O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may you be praised forever and ever! ¹¹ Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. ¹² Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.

¹³ “O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! ¹⁴ But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us! 

1 Chronicles 29:10-14

Dear God, I attended a Summer Adoration and Benediction of the Holy Eucharist event at the local Catholic church last night where my wife, who is Catholic, and I (who am not Catholic) attend. I have to say, it was one of the most worshipful group experiences I’ve had in a while. Just lovely. It was great to sing to you with such depth and yet softness. Those who were leading the singing had the perfect pitch to their voices. And the acoustics in that old cathedral combined with the soft, simple piano (and by simple, I mean, in the best way, what seemed to be an intentional shunning of elaborate keyboarding and just simply embracing the melody and the chords in a soft way) just invited me in to rest in your lap and sing to you. Here is the program for the evening:

With that said, this passage from 1 Chronicles was the first passage read. I thought it a very fitting beginning to the service. Great work by David here. Good, clean worship–without wishing death on his enemies. This one line didn’t stand out as much to me last night as it does tonight: Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. For David, this was him claiming your authority over him and over Israel. For me, I want to claim your authority over my life and everything over which I might have influence. Not that I have the power over anything like David did over Israel, but to whatever extent I have influence, I yield it to you.

Father, you know my aches. You know my joys. They are all yours. My life is all yours. Help me to remember that this evening as I lie down to sleep. Help me to remember that in the morning as I go to work and share your love with those around me. O Lord, whatever I have is yours.

I pray all of this through the grace of Jesus’s blood,

Amen

Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
    Let the whole world know what he has done.

1 Chronicles 16:8

Dear God, a friend sent me a Tik Tok today with an unnamed preacher saying that Isaiah says that worship is like a coat. I think the reference is Isaiah 61:3, but I’m not sure. Basically, the analogy is that when there is bad weather we put on a coat and the coat doesn’t change the weather, but it changes our body’s response to the weather. Worship, like the coat, when applied by us, does not change our circumstances, but it changes how we respond to our circumstances. That was pretty good.

This verse of the day from 1 Chronicles fits into that as well. Not that it makes that analogy, but it reminds me to give thanks to you. David is telling me (actually he wrote this song for the Levites to sing as they brought the Ark of the Covenant home) to worship you and give you thanks. To let the whole world know you are my God.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I cannot begin to give you adequate worship and praise. I simply cannot give you enough. Anything of offer isn’t even a drop in the ocean compared with what I owe you. You are You and me. Last week, you gave my wife two amazing divine appointments after a difficult event. You care about the small details. You see us in our need. I cannot count the times you have answered my prayers–both by saying yes for my good and by saying no for my good. I have no wisdom outside of you. I have no words outside of you. I am sorry for my sin. I am sorry for my selfishness. I am sorry for my lethargy. But even in my human frailty you make a way for me. You love me. It’s unfathomable. Thank you. I ask nothing of you except your presence. I want nothing from you but your peace. Use me as you will to bring yourself into this world.

I pray this only because you have benevolently allowed and enabled me to,

Amen

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord , and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.
1 Chronicles 29:11

Dear God, sometimes I just need to stop and worship you. I forget to worship sometimes, and I’m sorry for that. I get into my thoughts, my pursuit of you, my problems, or just my desire to become the man you have for me to be that I lose track of how amazing you are and how humbling it is to really be in your presence.

I was listening to a podcast this week about aliens and what it would mean for humanity if they were real. For some, you aren’t big enough to account for aliens. They were actually debating whether Jesus’s death here on earth would be enough to cover an alien’s sin and reconcile them to you (I think that’s when I turned it off). They were discussing us being made in your image and how Adam was the highest form of your creation so if there is a species greater than us what does that mean about you?

Frankly, I see all of those topics as rubbish. As far as I’m concerned, you created it all. You are big enough to understand the car reaches of the universe. You know exactly how it is all out together. You know the worlds you created and the other life you created. You know what it takes to reconcile whatever needs to be reconciled to you. So stepping back from that amazing, macro level and drilling down to my little life, you are aware of everything about me as well. The expanses into my psyche. The desires and even sins of my flesh. You know about my situations and my prayer requests. You care about me. You love me. You work all things together for my good.

Father, I stand, sit, prostrate myself in awe of you. You are God. I am not. Lead me today. I have a friend who is dying. I’m going to go and visit him in a bit. Please guide his family and give me your words for him. Give his wife wisdom and strength. For my friends recovering from injuries and in the hospital. Please be the God of their healing. Make this pain count in their lives. Do it all for your glory, oh, Lord.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen