Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Deuteronomy 28-29
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 87
Key Verse
Deuteronomy 28:49 — “The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;”
Devotional Thought
Moses stands on the plains of Moab and sets before Israel two roads, and he does not soften the stakes. In Deuteronomy 28, obedience brings blessing that “shall come on thee, and overtake thee” — a strange, lovely picture of good things chasing down a people who simply walked in God’s ways. The blessing reaches the city and the field, the basket and the store, the fruit of the body and the fruit of the ground. It reaches the knees and the legs, the coming in and the going out. The LORD promises to open His good treasure, to give rain in season, to make His people the head and not the tail. Then Moses turns the page, and the curses fall like a hammer: blight, siege, exile, a trembling heart, a life that hangs in doubt. The same covenant that lifts up also warns, because God will not be mocked by a people who bless themselves in their hearts while walking in the imagination of their own.
Notice verse 47, tucked near the end of the long catalog of judgment: “Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.” The root sin was not only disobedience but joylessness — a heart that received abundance without gratitude and drifted toward other gods. That is a warning for us in the long, warm days of late July. Summer can make us drowsy and self-satisfied: gardens producing, schedules loosening, blessings arriving so steadily we stop noticing the Giver. Moses calls Israel to remember the forty years when clothes did not wear out and shoes did not grow old, when manna fell and water came from rock — so that they might know that He is the LORD.
And then Psalm 87 lifts our eyes higher. The LORD loves the gates of Zion; glorious things are spoken of the city of God. Rahab and Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia — outsiders, foreigners, the very nations that once oppressed Israel — are counted as born in her. When the LORD writes up the people, He records, “This man was born there.” Here is grace beyond the covenant’s warnings: a city whose citizenship is open to the stranger, whose springs are all in God. The blessings and curses of Deuteronomy show us our need; Zion shows us where the need is met. So today, receive the day’s ordinary gifts with gladness, and let your heart run back to the God who gave them.
Reflection
- Where in your life have you begun to “bless yourself in your heart,” assuming peace while quietly drifting from wholehearted obedience?
- If the LORD wrote up His people today, would your joy in Him be evident to those who know you best?
Prayer
Our Father, we confess that we have too often received Your abundance without gladness and walked in our own imaginations while claiming Your peace. Thank You for the warnings of Your Word, which are kindness meant to turn us back. Teach us to serve You with joyfulness of heart, to see Your hand in rain and harvest, in coming in and going out. Write our names among Your people, and make us citizens of that city whose springs are all in You. Keep us faithful to the end, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 87:1 — “His foundation is in the holy mountains.”