- Today’s Reading:
- Matthew 8:1-17
- Psalm 9:13-20
Matthew 8:1-17
Here we read about the amazing healing powers of Jesus. How could people not believe in a man who could remove sickness and diseases with a touch of a hand? I don’t remember where I heard this, but I have heard that healers were a dime a dozen back then. But surely none came close to the true power Jesus had to heal. It amazes me how people can be faced with the truth and yet turn their eyes away and act like it never happened.
My favorite part of this passage came in chapter 24, where a soldier came up to Jesus and asked him to heal his servant without ever seeing him. He had such faith that Jesus could do that; faith that apparently Jesus had not yet seen in Israel. We take that kind of faith for granted – today we must have faith that the Lord can act without his physical presence. People in the old days got to literally walk next to the Lord. They got to converse with him, they were literally touched by Jesus! Today we have to believe that the Lord can perform these miracles from afar.
I think it makes it easier for people to deny the Lord's works today, because if they don’t SEE the Lord do it, it can be dismissed as “coincidence.” But it's still heartening that Jesus remarked on the faith the soldier had – faith that Jesus can perform miracles when he’s not right next to someone – faith that we all must have now because we have no other choice if we are to believe.
Psalm 9:13-20
I read the first part of this Psalm (1:12) a couple days ago. It consisted of David praising the Lord for overcoming his enemies. David continues this Psalm by praying for mercy from and vindication to his tormentors. It then ends with another cry for the Lord to judge the wicked.
I know that this Psalm is supposed to be a song but it's really hard for me to look at words and imagine them as music -- especially when they don't rhyme! Yeah, I should know better, but I don't. I'm sure that if I heard it sung it would be a very powerful hymn.
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