Two books of the Bible written from the low places
Book Three moves from history into poetry. After the battles and kings of Book Two, you sit down with a man who has lost everything, and then with singers who pour their hearts out to God in every kind of weather.
Job and the Psalms are where many people turn when they are hurting. They are honest books. Job argues. The psalmists complain, weep, wait and ask how long. And again and again, in the middle of all that honesty, a promise breaks through.
Every Promise of God, Book Three, will cover Promises 621 through 904, from the first chapter of Job to the last verse of Psalm 89. Like the books before it, it uses the King James Version, plain words at about a seventh grade level, and the same six parts for every promise. It is coming next. There is no release date yet.
Job and the Psalms, side by side
Job: a question that will not go away
Job lived in the land of Uz. The Bible calls him perfect and upright, a man who feared God. In a short time his oxen, sheep and camels were stolen or destroyed, his servants were killed, all ten of his children died, and then his body broke out in sores. Three friends came and sat with him on the ground for seven days without a word, which may have been the kindest thing they did.
Then they started talking. Over many chapters they insist Job must have sinned. Job insists he has not and asks God to answer him. At last God speaks out of a whirlwind. At the end, God says the friends had not spoken of Him rightly, and He gives Job twice as much as he had before.
Reading Job for its promises takes care, because so much of it is people talking about God. Since the series counts the promises God Himself speaks, the pages in Book Three keep that line clear.
Psalms 1 through 89: prayers set to music
The Psalms were Israel's songbook. The headings over many of them name David, and others name the sons of Korah, Asaph and other singers. The headings over a few, such as Psalm 57, place David in a cave while Saul hunted him. Some were sung at the temple. Some are confessions. Some are pure praise.
Book Three reads the first eighty-nine of them in order. That stretch holds many of the best-loved chapters in the Bible: the blessed man of Psalm 1, the shepherd of Psalm 23, the light of Psalm 27, the refuge of Psalm 46 and the broken prayer of Psalm 51.
It ends with Psalm 89, a long song about God's covenant with David that finishes with Amen, and Amen.
A line from the ash heap
Job did not understand what was happening to him. He said so many times. But in the middle of his worst days he said this:
But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:10 (KJV)
Gold is tried in fire to burn out what is not gold. Nobody ever explained to Job the reason for his pain, and the book never says he learned it. He only knew that God knew the way he was taking. If you are in a long season of pain, Job and the Psalms have room for you. Our pages on promises of God for comfort and when God's promises seem delayed can help while you wait.
A word for anyone hurting
A gentle word. Standing on God's promises goes hand in hand with good care. Keep seeing your doctor, take what you have been prescribed, and talk to someone you trust. If healing is slow, that is never proof that your faith was too small. The people of the Bible waited too.
Job's friends were sure his troubles were his own fault. God said they were wrong. We take that seriously. This website will never tell a suffering reader that more faith would have fixed things. Job and the Psalms point you to a God who hears, who stays and who keeps His word, even when the answer is slow.
The Psalms help here too. Many psalms carry David's name in their headings, and some of those headings place him on the run or in grief. The songs do not pretend otherwise. The writer tells God exactly how he feels, and then reminds himself of what God has said. That pattern of honest words followed by a promise is something you can copy on your own hard days. Read the psalm out loud, tell God the truth about where you are, and then hold on to the line where He commits Himself to you.
Psalms you will meet in Book Three
The verse picture comes from Psalm 46, the song of a city that stays calm while mountains shake. It sits well inside Book Three's range. So do these:
- Psalm 23. The shepherd who leads, restores and stays with you through the valley.
- Psalm 27. The Lord as light, salvation and strength, and the call to wait on Him.
- Psalm 34. A song its heading ties to a narrow escape of David's, with the angel who camps around those who fear God.
- Psalm 37. Do not fret, commit your way, delight in the Lord.
- Psalm 55. Cast your burden on the Lord.
- Psalm 84. The God who is a sun and shield, and who holds back no good thing from those who walk uprightly.
Psalm 91, Psalm 121 and the psalms after Psalm 89 belong to a later book in the series. You can explore the whole Psalter now on our page of promises in Psalms.
Where Book Three stops, and why it stops there
The series follows the order of the Bible, one book at a time. For Book Three, the break comes at the end of Psalm 89. It is a fitting place to pause.
Psalm 89 remembers what God swore to David in Second Samuel, then cries out because the kingdom seems to be falling apart. Before that cry, the psalmist repeats God's own words:
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Psalm 89:34 (KJV)
That is a promise for the whole series. God does not change what has gone out of His lips. Book Three's range ends with this psalm, and the next book will pick up at Psalm 90.
While you wait for Book Three
- Leave your email.Use the sign-up form on this page. You will get one note when Book Three is ready, and nothing that wastes your time.
- Start the series from the beginning.Book One covers Genesis through Leviticus and Book Two covers Numbers through Esther. Both are out now.
- Read the Psalms on this site.Our Psalms page and promises to David page will get you ready.
- Pray a psalm a day.Read one psalm slowly, find the line where God promises something, and say it back to Him in your own words.