Saturday, September 13, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 2 Kings 23-25, 1 Chronicles 1-2
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 106
Devotional Thought
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and by the time he was a young man he had already begun the work that defines his memory: tearing down the high places, breaking the images, burning the bones of the priests upon the altars. When the book of the law was found in the temple and read aloud to him, he tore his clothes. He did not merely hear the words; he let them search him. He gathered the people, read the covenant in their ears, and led them in a return to the LORD. And yet, for all his zeal, the tide of judgment had already turned. The very next chapters carry his sons and the nation into Egypt and Babylon. The reforms of one faithful king could not undo the generations of rebellion that preceded him. There is a soberness here that the season of September teaches us as the year begins to tilt toward autumn—fruit is not gathered in a day, and neither is ruin.
Psalm 106 sings the same hard history from the other side. It is a psalm of thanksgiving, but it is mostly a confession. The fathers did not understand the wonders in Egypt; they forgot the multitude of mercies and provoked Him at the Red Sea. He saved them for His name’s sake, led them through the depths, and then they soon forgot His works. They lusted in the wilderness, envied Moses, and made a calf at Horeb, changing their glory into the likeness of an ox that eats grass. Verse 15 is one of the most searching lines in all the Psalter: “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” They got what they craved, and it starved them. Moses stood in the breach and turned away wrath, but the pattern held—despising the pleasant land, murmuring in their tents, until they were overthrown in the wilderness and scattered among the nations.
Read 2 Kings and Psalm 106 together and you see the whole story of Scripture in miniature: a holy God, a forgetful people, and mercy that outlasts both. Josiah’s reform was real, and God honored it. Moses’ intercession was real, and God relented. But the deeper cure for a forgetful heart is not a better king or a better prophet; it is the salvation the psalmist begs for in verse 4—”O visit me with thy salvation.” That prayer is answered in Christ, who stood in the breach not for a season but for all time, taking the wrath that our forgetting deserved.
As the days shorten and the leaves begin to turn, we are invited to remember. Not to live in nostalgia, but to keep the mighty acts of the LORD before our eyes, lest we too soon forget His works. The leanness of verse 15 is a warning; the mercy of verse 1 is a promise. Both are true, and both are for us today.
Reflection
- When did you last receive exactly what you asked God for—and discover afterward that your soul felt lean? What were you really craving?
- Josiah’s reforms could not undo the sins of the generations before him, yet he was faithful anyway. Where are you called to be faithful even when you cannot see the outcome repaired in your lifetime?
Prayer
O Lord, we give thanks unto Thee, for Thou art good and Thy mercy endureth for ever. We confess with the psalmist that we have sinned with our fathers and forgotten Thy wonders. Forgive our forgetfulness, and do not give us over to the cravings that leave the soul lean. Remember us with the favour Thou bearest unto Thy people; visit us with Thy salvation. Raise up in us the heart of Josiah—tender before Thy word, zealous for Thy house. And when we stand where Moses stood, in the breach of a broken generation, let us intercede rather than murmur, trusting the mercy that endures for ever. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 106:1 — “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”