6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143

The Word for today:
1 Kings 1

We don't know what to make of Solomon, or what became of him.

Song of Solomon is sublime. Proverbs is wise. Ecclesiastes shows the man who wrote Proverbs and Song of Solomon as he unravels.

Things just seemed to preoccupy his heart. Then those preoccupations moved God from the center off to the side.

I like Solomon. I don't feel the kinship with him that I do with David, but I understand how a man, close to God, could one day wake up a rank idolater, given to indulgences, passions, preoccupations, and possessiveness of every kind. It's really a short step from here to there. For each of us, sin crouches at the door (Genesis 4:7).

We are all so close to letting side issues become central in our hearts. Solomon let sin build upon sin until God was crowded out of his heart. As far as we know, he didn't turn back.

Sad to say, but some Bible characters are examples in reverse. They teach us what not to be.

Bible expositors tell us that the Penitential Psalms are these:
6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.

The fundamental difference between David and Solomon are those 7 Psalms.

Get to know Solomon as we go through the Bible. Get to know him in 1 Kings, in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Get to know what made him tick, and get to know what caused him to come unglued.

Turn to scripture's greatest cry of repentance, Psalm 51. Write these numbers at the top of that page: 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143. Make David's pattern of repentance a pattern of your life as well.

Repentance turns the unbeliever to the cross, where he is born again, a new creation in Christ. Repentance turns the believer back to the cross, to the wellspring of his new life, to remind him what--and more importantly Whom--his new life is made of.

6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.

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