Today's Reading July 29

Good morning. Off to church in just a bit - we don't get going until around 9:30. This will be a tough service, our bi-vocational pastor is leaving after today. He and family have been wonderful, certainly in the year that we have been here. We wish them well. But it will be a strain on the congregation as we begin the process of finding God's will in the matter.
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This morning's Old Testament portion continues in the Psalms (I did say we'd be here a while, recall?) as we turn to Psalms 56, 57, and 58. I love some of the imagery of the Psalmist, little snippets of great insight that come from a person who both knows distress and knows the Lord. For example, from Psalm 56

8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

. He knows firmly that the Lord is present and knows it all, he has not been forgotten. Or,

Chapter 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.

Seems to me someone made a song out of that a few years ago, I was part of a choir that sang it. David's themes are still ours.
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This evening we begin the final chapter of Acts, chapter 28 verses 1 through 15.
Having survived a shipwreck, Paul and his companions, and the Roman soldiers nominally his guards, take shelter on an island. At which point Paul is bitten by a venomous snake, and suffers no ill effects. Shades of Satan again, and it doesn't work this time either, and the snake is cast into a fire. Good imagery there. As a result of all of this, Paul ends up laying hands on and healing the father of the chief man of the island, leading to quite a stir and yet another opportunity to proclaim the Gospel. Eventually they make it to Italy.
I wish I had a good understanding of what happened in these areas and to these people that Paul (and others) just ''happened'' to be preaching to on the way through. What of the soldiers and sailors who were on that ship, what of the inhabitants of that island, what of Agrippa and his court?