Today's Readings and Stuff -- Wednesday, 29 July 2015

rather quiet today.  Dear Wife continues to recuperate.  Slowly, ever so slowly, but day by day slight improvements.  She went out on the deck and talked for a while with next-door niece.  "Girl talk", and I absented myself.  The female imperative to slice & dice all other non-present females is something I will never understand, and I doubt that most guys do, or would want to.  I've been very much outnumbered for all of our 27 years together, and, while I neither understand nor approve of this, my approval is not required and it just doesn't matter much anymore.

Another day with high (for the area) temperatures and no rain.  The garden is not doing well, the cucumber plants are showing some sort of yellow leaf blight and the cucumbers are developing oddly.  Same for the tomatoes.  Radishes failed totally.  Peas not looking good.  Got a few beans.  Peppers are OK, but the girls (Wife and niece) like them, I could live a happy life never seeing one again.  But we shall see.

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The Old Testament reading is Psalms 56, 57, and 58.

Psalm 56

1	Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
2	Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3	What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4	In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5	Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6	They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
7	Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God.
8	Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
9	When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
10	In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word.
11	In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
12	Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.
13	For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?

Psalm 57

1	Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.
2	I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.
3	He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
4	My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
5	Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
6	They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.
7	My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.
8	Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
9	I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.
10	For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
11	Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

Psalm 58

1	Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2	Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3	The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
4	Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
5	Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6	Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
7	Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8	As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9	Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10	The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11	So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

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The New Testament passage is verses 1-15 of Acts chapter 28.  Tomorrow will, Lord willing, complete this year's passage through the Acts.
A note here also.   Verse 1 refers to landfall in the island called Melita.  The western church believes that this is the island of Malta, which would be en route from Jerusalem to Rome.  The eastern, orthodox churches often identify it with the island of Meliten (today Mljet) off the coast of Dubrovnik in Croatia.  That is somewhat off-course, but then they were in a sailing vessel being blown far off course by some awful storms.

Acts 28:1-15

1	And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.
2	And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.
3	And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
4	And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
5	And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
6	Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
7	In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.
8	And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.
9	So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed:
10	Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.
11	And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.
12	And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days.
13	And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli:
14	Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome.
15	And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.