The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour from Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "To Pray or Not to Pray" for Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples![Psalm 105:1]Would you agree with me if I were to say there are two kinds of people in the world?
Some people will accept that statement and some folks won't, which, I guess, means that there really are two kinds of people. That the world is divided into two groups of people is hardly an original thought. A lot of famous people have come to that conclusion:
Robert Frost said, "There are two kinds of people: some willing to work and the rest willing to let them."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, "People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something, and those who sit still and inquire, 'Why wasn't it done the other way?'"
James Thorpe threw in his two cents when he said, "The world is divided into two types of people: those who love to talk, and those who ... hate to listen."
The great philosopher Dear Abby said, "There are two kinds of people: those who walk into a room and say, 'There you are' and those who say, 'Here I am!'"
Indira Gandhi, quoting her grandfather, said, "There are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to be in the first group; there was less competition there."
Here's one that wasn't said by a famous individual: "There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who believe in the willingness of the Triune God to answer prayer, and there are those who wish they believed in a Lord who was caring and committed to His people."
Me?
I'm in that first group. I hope you are too.
If you are unsure about the Lord's commitment to you, I would say look at God's Son, our Savior. His life was spent winning your salvation and His resurrection proves His work was successfully completed.
Yes, look at Jesus who often stopped what He was doing to answer the prayers of a cripple, a blind man, a leper, a possessed person. Look and see how often Jesus responded favorably to the needs of those who had been abandoned by the world.
Then, having looked at what Jesus did, listen to what the Lord has said:
* The Lord has told us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us (see 1 Peter 5:7).
* The Lord said we should call upon Him in the day of trouble and He would deliver us (see Psalm 50:15).
* Scripture assures us: "For everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13).
So, once again I ask in what group of people are you?
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, I give thanks You are willing to incline Your ear to Your people who come to You in the Name of our Savior. It is in the Name of Jesus we offer up this thanks. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours, 
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read: Psalms 36-38; John 12:1-26
Psalms 36:1 (0) For the leader. By David, the servant of Adonai:
2 (1) Crime speaks to the wicked.
I perceive this in my heart;
before his eyes there is no fear
of God.
3 (2) For, the way he sees it,
crime makes his life easy —
that is, until his wrongs are discovered;
then, he is hated.
4 (3) His words are wrong and deceitful;
he has stopped being wise and doing good.
5 (4) He devises trouble as he lies in bed;
so set is he on his own bad way
that he doesn’t hate evil.
6 (5) Adonai, in the heavens is your grace;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
7 (6) Your righteousness is like the mountains of God,
your judgments are like the great deep.
You save man and beast, Adonai.
8 (7) How precious, God, is your grace!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings,
9 (8) they feast on the rich bounty of your house,
and you have them drink from the stream of your delights.
10 (9) For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
11 (10) Continue your grace to those who know you
and your righteousness to the upright in heart.
12 (11) Don’t let the foot of the proud tread on me
or the hands of the wicked drive me away.
13 (12) There they lie fallen, those evildoers,
flung down and unable to rise.
37:(0) By David:
(1) Don’t be upset by evildoers
or envious of those who do wrong,
2 for soon they will wither like grass
and fade like the green in the fields.
3 Trust in Adonai, and do good;
settle in the land, and feed on faithfulness.
4 Then you will delight yourself in Adonai,
and he will give you your heart’s desire.
5 Commit your way to Adonai;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will make your vindication shine forth like light,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before Adonai;
wait patiently till he comes.
Don’t be upset by those whose way
succeeds because of their wicked plans.
8 Stop being angry, put aside rage,
and don’t be upset — it leads to evil.
9 For evildoers will be cut off,
but those hoping in Adonai will inherit the land.
10 Soon the wicked will be no more;
you will look for his place, and he won’t be there.
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.
12 The wicked plots against the righteous
and grinds his teeth at him;
13 but Adonai laughs at the wicked,
knowing his day will come.
14 The wicked have unsheathed their swords,
they have strung their bows
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slaughter those whose way is upright.
15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
16 Better the little that the righteous has
than the wealth of all the wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken,
but Adonai upholds the righteous.
18 Adonai knows what the wholehearted suffer,
but their inheritance lasts forever.
19 They will not be distressed when times are hard;
when famine comes, they will have plenty.
20 For the wicked will perish;
Adonai’s enemies will be like sheep fat,
ending up as smoke, finished.
21 The wicked borrows and doesn’t repay,
but the righteous is generous and gives.
22 For those blessed by [Adonai] will inherit the land,
but those cursed by him will be cut off.
23 Adonai directs a person’s steps,
and he delights in his way.
24 He may stumble, but he won’t fall headlong,
for Adonai holds him by the hand.
25 I have been young; now I am old;
yet not once have I seen the righteous abandoned
or his descendants begging for bread.
26 All day long he is generous and lends,
and his descendants are blessed.
27 If you turn from evil and do good,
you will live safely forever.
28 For Adonai loves justice
and will not abandon his faithful;
they are preserved forever.
But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.
29 The righteous will inherit the land
and live in it forever.
30 The mouth of the righteous articulates wisdom,
his tongue speaks justice.
31 The Torah of his God is in his heart;
his footsteps do not falter.
32 The wicked keeps his eye on the righteous,
seeking a chance to kill him.
33 But Adonai will not leave him in his power
or let him be condemned when judged.
34 Put your hope in Adonai, keep to his way,
and he will raise you up to inherit the land.
When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
35 I have seen a wicked man wielding great power,
flourishing like a shade tree in its native soil.
36 But I passed by again, and he was no longer there;
I looked for him, but he could not be found.
37 Observe the pure person, consider the upright;
for the peaceful person will have posterity.
38 But transgressors will all be destroyed;
the posterity of the wicked will be cut off.
39 Adonai is the one who saves the righteous;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
40 Adonai helps them and rescues them,
rescues them from the wicked and saves them;
because they take refuge in him.
38:(0) A psalm of David, serving as a reminder:
2 (1) Adonai, don’t rebuke me when you are angry
or discipline me when you are enraged,
3 (2) for your arrows penetrate me deeply,
and your hand is pressing me down.
4 (3) Your indignation left no part of me intact;
my sin made my whole body sick;
5 (4) for my iniquities loom high over my head
as a heavy burden, too heavy for me.
6 (5) I have stinking, festering wounds
because of my foolishness.
7 (6) I am bent down, prostrate completely;
I go about mourning all day long.
8 (7) For my insides burn with fever,
and my whole body is sick.
9 (8) I am numb, completely crushed;
my anguished heart makes me groan aloud.
10 (9) Adonai, all my longing is known to you;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
11 (10) My heart is throbbing, my strength is gone,
and the light in my eyes has left me.
12 (11) My friends and companions shun my disease;
even the closest keep their distance.
13 (12) Those seeking my life lay snares for me,
those seeking to harm me speak of disaster
and think up deceptions all day long.
14 (13) But I’m like a deaf man — I don’t hear it;
and, like a mute, I don’t say a word.
15 (14) Yes, I’ve become like a man who doesn’t hear
and in whose mouth are no defenses.
16 (15) For it is in you, Adonai, that I hope.
You will answer, Adonai my God.
17 (16) I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me
or boast against me when my foot slips.”
18 (17) For I am about to fall,
and my pain is always with me.
19 (18) I acknowledge my guilt,
I am anxious because of my sin.
20 (19) But my enemies are alive and well,
those who wrongfully hate me increase their numbers;
21 (20) and, since they repay good with evil,
they oppose me because I pursue good.
22 (21) Don’t abandon me, Adonai!
My God, don’t be far from me!
23 (22) Come quickly to help me,
Adonai, my salvation!
John 12:1 Six days before Pesach, Yeshua came to Beit-Anyah, where El‘azar lived, the man Yeshua had raised from the dead; 2 so they gave a dinner there in his honor. Marta served the meal, and El‘azar was among those at the table with him. 3 Miryam took a whole pint of pure oil of spikenard, which is very expensive, poured it on Yeshua’s feet and wiped his feet with her hair, so that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of the talmidim, Y’hudah from K’riot, the one who was about to betray him, said, 5 “This perfume is worth a year’s wages! Why wasn’t it sold and the money given to the poor?” 6 Now he said this not out of concern for the poor, but because he was a thief — he was in charge of the common purse and used to steal from it. 7 Yeshua said, “Leave her alone! She kept this for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
9 A large crowd of Judeans learned that he was there; and they came not only because of Yeshua, but also so that they could see El‘azar, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 The head cohanim then decided to do away with El‘azar too, 11 since it was because of him that large numbers of the Judeans were leaving their leaders and putting their trust in Yeshua.
12 The next day, the large crowd that had come for the festival heard that Yeshua was on his way into Yerushalayim. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Deliver us!”[John 12:13 Psalm 118:25]
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai,[John 12:13 Psalm 118:26] the King of Isra’el!”
14 After finding a donkey colt, Yeshua mounted it, just as the Tanakh says —
15 “Daughter of Tziyon, don’t be afraid!
Look! your King is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt.”[John 12:15 Zechariah 9:9]
16 His talmidim did not understand this at first; but after Yeshua had been glorified, then they remembered that the Tanakh said this about him, and that they had done this for him. 17 The group that had been with him when he called El‘azar out of the tomb and raised him from the dead had been telling about it. 18 It was because of this too that the crowd came out to meet him — they had heard that he had performed this miracle. 19 The P’rushim said to each other, “Look, you’re getting nowhere! Why, the whole world has gone after him!”
20 Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greek-speaking Jews. 21 They approached Philip, the one from Beit-Tzaidah in the Galil, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Yeshua.” 22 Philip came and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Yeshua. 23 Yeshua gave them this answer: “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Yes, indeed! I tell you that unless a grain of wheat that falls to the ground dies, it stays just a grain; but if it dies, it produces a big harvest. 25 He who loves his life loses it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it safe right on into eternal life! 26 If someone is serving me, let him follow me; wherever I am, my servant will be there too. My Father will honor anyone who serves me.
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